The psychological battle ahead of Friday's highly anticipated boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul took centre stage at the official weigh-in, with AJ swiftly dismantling one of his opponent's key strategies.
The Weight Disparity and Mind Games
If Jake Paul, known as 'The Problem Child', hoped the former heavyweight champion would struggle to hit a lower weight, he was mistaken. Anthony Joshua arrived at the scales 1.6 pounds under the 245-pound limit imposed by Paul's team. A composed Joshua insisted, 'I made weight easily. No problem.'
This act of balancing the accomplished, experienced Joshua against the brilliant but smaller entrepreneur Paul was always a delicate judgement. Joshua has weighed over 250 pounds in recent fights, and to make this more of a contest than a mismatch, Paul likely should have mandated a 240-pound limit. Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, took credit for exaggerating to Paul's camp how much weight his fighter walks around with between bouts.
Official Weigh-In Showdown
The physical disparity between the two was stark on the official scales. Jake Paul weighed in at 216.6 pounds, nearly four kilos lighter than for his previous foray into heavyweight boxing against Mike Tyson and almost thirteen kilograms lighter than Anthony Joshua.
Paul, clearly fighting a sore throat and heavy cold, roared 'champion, you know who I am' to a crowd where Joshua had not yet arrived. When the moment for the public face-off came, both men were elevated on huge pedestals. Joshua appeared the more assured, Paul the more excitable.
Both made throat-slitting gestures as they met face-to-face, with AJ telling Paul to stop putting his hands on him. Paul told Joshua, 'I've got you right where I want you. Under all the pressure, in a corner and ready to get knocked out in the sixth or seventh round.'
Joshua's Stern Warning and Event Stakes
The British two-time world heavyweight champion had a blunt warning for the YouTube sensation: 'I am the serious boxer here and I'm going to f*** you up.' This reinforced his earlier claims that he would 'kill' Paul in the ring.
While Miami is not burning with fever for this manufactured contest—the public seats at the old Jackie Gleason Theatre were less than half full with fight tickets still on sale—the promotion cares little. What matters most are the tens of millions of viewers expected to tune in on Netflix for the global broadcast this Friday night.
