Jake Paul threatens lawsuits over fixed fight claims ahead of Anthony Joshua clash

A former cruiserweight and bridgerweight world champion has revealed that multiple hard rounds with Jake Paul in Puerto Rico forced him to rethink his original assessment of the matchup.

Paul faces Joshua this Friday in Miami in an eight-round heavyweight contest that most observers have framed as a one-sided affair. Lawrence Okolie was firmly in that group before sharing the ring with Paul.

Across nine to ten demanding spars, Okolie says Paul was given no special treatment and was pushed at full intensity. The response, he claims, surprised him.

Rather than wilting under pressure, Paul held his own against a proven world-class boxer and showed composure that Okolie did not expect from a relatively inexperienced boxer. Speaking in an interview with Boxing News, he said:

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“The first day, I remember pulling [Paul’s] coach to the side and saying, ‘Hey, come on, how do you want me to do this? I was expecting to hear, ‘Go 50 or 20%, ’ but he said, ‘Do what you do. So I did what I do. I was really going for it, and I was surprised by how well he was doing with the likes of myself. Before [sparring him], I thought there was no chance that he gets out of round one [against Joshua], but now I’m almost certain that it’s going to be a more interesting fight than a lot of people think.”

He added:

“He’s not a heavyweight, so there’s only so much force he can [generate], but he’s a very fast puncher. He punches with a lot of speed and a lot of tenacity, like a good cruiserweight puncher. When you’re a cruiserweight, you can knock out a heavyweight if you land right, so I had to respect what he was doing [in sparring].”

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Francis Ngannou previews Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul clash

Francis Ngannou has firsthand experience of the threat Anthony Joshua brings inside the squared circle. Having shared the ring with the former world champion, the ex-UFC heavyweight believes Jake Paul is walking into boxing’s most unforgiving weight class.

Ngannou was surprised by Paul’s decision to fight at full heavyweight rather than easing into the division. In Ngannou’s view, heavyweight boxing leaves no room for error, and the fight could end quickly.

Speaking in a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Ngannou said:

“Yeah, I would say so [Paul gets knocked out in the first round]. But why exactly Jake Paul took that fight? That’s what I’m excited to see. You know, what is his strategy... AJ versus Jake, I think besides the Jake team, nobody is really like, okay, Jake’s got this. He can pull this off. Maybe he’s going to surprise us.”

Check out Francis Ngannou's comments below (10:20):

Edited by Abhishek Nambiar