Staggering Revenue Revealed for Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul Showdown trucc

A crossover boxing super-fight between the former two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and rising cruiserweight star and former creator Jake Paul, stands to make everyone involved a considerable sum of money, according to a sports finance expert.

Joshua has not fought since his brutal fifth-round stoppage loss to Daniel Dubois in London, last year, but continues to be linked with various opponents ahead of a high-stakes comeback that could define whether he stays in the sport, or retires. Paul, meanwhile, is fresh off the most significant wins of his fledgling career having defeated Mike Perry, Mike Tyson, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in back-to-back-to-back bouts over the last 12 months.

With nothing getting in the way of them fighting one another, and with other rivals linked with other bouts, conversation has turned toward pairing Paul with Joshua — and Rob Wilson, a professor of applied sport finance, has revealed the stunning amount of cash they could generate for themselves should they agree to a fight.

Expected Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul Paydays Revealed
Exposure from Joshua's mainstream UK fans and Paul's appeal to young demographics could draw 8-figure purses

One reason a prospective fight between Joshua and Paul may not generate as much money as it possibly once could have done, is down to the Brit's slide of late. At 35 years old, Joshua has not beaten anyone meaningful since 2023, when he retired Otto Wallin in the fifth round. In 2024, he thumped the former UFC star Francis Ngannou into a second-round knockout, before falling to Dubois's punching, later that year.

"He's obviously not had the best performances either over the last couple of years, so that fan engagement has probably waned to a certain extent," Wilson told OLBG. "But then you bring in a whole new audience of people with Jake Paul.

"He is, to be fair, showing himself as a technically decent fighter."

Wilson praised the leaps Paul has made in his boxing acument but added that he's obviously "not in the kind of upper echelons of world heavyweight boxing [yet still] knows how to handle himself in the ring."

That alone, Wilson says, makes a fight between Paul and Joshua "a decent spectacle."

He added: "He's a contemporary boxer and the fact that he's been fighting these kinds of these older generational athletes and winning is one thing, whether he can mix it up with somebody like AJ is a completely different thing. I think the pay-per-view stuff will be really interesting."

If the pay-per-view sells well, Wilson said, then both boxers can make upwards of $40 million, each. He then explained why: "The access that Paul has to that 16 to 24-year-old age bracket, the social media influencer side of things is really interesting. So it would be a massive fight in terms of British boxing."

Not everyone will be pleased to see such a fight get booked, even though Joshua has shown a willingness to take those kinds of bouts, having already faced Ngannou.

Former world champion boxer George Groves, from Britain, told eScrapist Magazine: "Jake Paul, sometimes I'm there to defend him. Sometimes I'm not."

Groves added: "What's he bringing to the table? He ain't won no title. He can f*** right off, but somehow he's there. He's not fighting any current boxers. But people just let him do what he wants."