Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua odds, prediction: Best bets, tale of the tape for fight night

It’s real, and it’s a sporting event to wager on.

Jake Paul is boxing Olympic gold medalist and former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday night live from the Kaseya Center in Miami.

Paul, who has fought as low as 183.6 pounds, including a loss to Tommy Fury, is now stepping up to fight Joshua, who weighed in at 243.4 pounds.

Paul weighed in at 216.6 pounds for this bizarre boxing event, which begins at 8 p.m. ET, live on Netflix.

There’s a lot to dig into here, least of all being that Paul is way smaller than Joshua and preivously slated to fight Gervonta Davis (130 pounds) in November.

In that fight, Paul was contracted to weigh in at 195 pounds.

The bout against Davis wound up being canceled due to a domestic dispute, but it remains a question worth asking whether Paul has put on “good” weight to increase his mass to match someone like Joshua.

Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua Tale of the Tape

Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua prediction

You have to give Paul credit for even taking this fight.

Paul is way smaller than Joshua, who doesn’t take any opponent lightly. Just look at what Joshua did to Francis Ngannou, who is legitimately a heavyweight.

Joshua landed multiple killshots on Ngannou and won by brutal knockout in that bout.

I do not expect Paul to do that in this fight since his footwork is actually quite good.

Paul should honestly walk about the ring while Joshua comes forward and jab his way to a decision loss.

This is an eight-round fight, remember, not 12.

A win for Paul is surviving Joshua, so don’t get it twisted, he will talk up a decision loss to Joshua as a win against any other fighter.

Jake Paul holds all of the cards as the promoter of Paul vs. Joshua. Dax Tamargo/Shutterstock

I’m taking this fight to go the distance at +350 odds at Fanatics Sportsbook.

If you can find Joshua by decision at better odds than the +400 that I’m seeing out there, I like that as well.

Paul shouldn’t be 14/1 to win by decision since his best path is volume jabs on the outside, and we have no idea what kind of shape Joshua is in.

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Most Valuable Promotions CEO Nakisa Bidarian told me last week that they took this fight because of the amount of time Joshua (36) has been away from the ring.

“Really, AJ has been on the sidelines for 14-plus months,” Bidarian told The Post on Dec. 12. “So if Jake’s going to do it, this is probably a good time to do it.”

Fans expecting to see Paul sent to the shadow realm will surely be disappointed on Friday night.

THE PLAY: Fight goes the distance (+350, Fanatics Sportsbook)

Why Trust New York Post Betting

Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting. During the football season he’s showcased massive profits at The Post in the player prop market the last two seasons. While constantly betting long shots, his return on investment is 30.15 percent since 2022.