Anthony Joshua May Have Ended Jake Paul’s Boxing Experiment

“I’m getting some new scans in a couple of days, of the jaw, to get an update on the healing process,” Jake said on Ariel Helwani’s show. “We’ll see what the doctors say. I think I’ll be able to get a more accurate time frame, or can I even fight again? That is definitely in the realm of possibility.”

Jake added that he is still waiting to learn how the bone heals before returning to sparring.

“It does feel a lot better as the weeks go by, but I definitely need to get cleared to be able to spar,” Paul said. “I think it just depends on how the bone heals.”

The comments painted a very different picture from the confidence Jake carried before stepping into the ring with Joshua on Netflix last year.

Joshua dropped Jake twice in the fifth round before stopping him in the sixth. The defeat immediately changed the discussion around Paul fighting legitimate upper-level heavyweights and cruiserweights.

Even a faded version of Joshua proved far too dangerous physically. That reality raises obvious questions about what younger heavyweights such as Moses Itauma, Richard Torrez Jr., or Daniel Dubois would potentially do against Paul inside a professional ring.

The same concerns exist at cruiserweight. Fighters like Jai Opetaia operate at a completely different level, technically and physically, from the opponents Paul had been facing before moving up against Joshua.

Jake can still likely compete successfully against limited opposition if he returns, but the Joshua fight appeared to expose the ceiling of trying to mix with genuine championship-level punchers.