Anthony Joshua's decision-making seemingly "backfired in a sense" against Jake Paul, claims former UFC middleweight champion 

Anthony Joshua won the fight against Jake Paul exactly how he said he would. However, the way it unfolded left room for some questions from fight fans.

The sixth-round knockout win against Paul settled the contest on paper, but the extended nature of the bout raised some eyebrows. For long stretches, the former heavyweight champion appeared content to manage the fight instead of ending it early.

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker recently offered his take on that strategy. He felt Joshua’s patience was logical but visually risky.

Allowing a limited but confident opponent to hang around can distort perception, especially when the skill gap is meant to be vast. Speaking in a recent episode of the MMArcade Podcast, he said:

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"I’ve seen so many different opinions, especially on Reddit. People were filthy with AJ that he wasn’t putting it on him out of the gate... I saw an interview with AJ saying that he wanted to take him to a point where he systematically broke him down. Which is cool. I can see that. But I felt like it backfired in a sense. Granted, all roads lead to Rome. He still broke the dude’s face. He broke his jaw in two places... Regardless of how he got there, dude still broke his face. That’s cool with me.”

He added:

"But it does look funny, though, because AJ is the best boxer in the world. I think it looks good for Jake because it shows that Jake does has some level of boxing. He’s a boxer. It turned into a bit of a thug fight by the end of it... It looked funny. It was a spectacle, and it was cool.”

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Anthony Joshua wasn't impressed by his performance against Jake Paul

Anthony Joshua stopped Jake Paul in six rounds, but the result did little to satisfy him. The former heavyweight champion admitted the performance fell short of his own standards, even after scoring a knockout and breaking Paul’s jaw.

Returning from a long layoff and a recent loss, Joshua felt his execution lacked sharpness and control. Speaking at the post-fight press conference, he said:

"I needed to do better. It’s a win, but it’s not a success. I think my coach expects more from me, and I expect more from myself. But what can we do? We can’t reverse the clocks. We have to move forward. I have to put that in the past now... After today, you might see a bit of social media, trying to lap up all of the algorithm attention, but for me, it’s in the past. I can’t live off of that win. I’ve got a lot of improving I need to do. I’m not happy.”

Check out Anthony Joshua's comments below (16:15):

Edited by Abhishek Nambiar