Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn described reports of the heavyweight nearing an agreement to fight Jake Paul as having “jumped the gun”.
The 28-year-old Paul is pursuing a new opponent after the cancellation of his exhibition with Gervonta “Tank” Davis, scheduled for November 14, following a civil lawsuit that was filed against Davis by his ex-girlfriend Courtney Rossel accusing him of battery, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It was widely reported on Wednesday that Joshua, 36, is on course to be installed as Davis’ opponent for a later date. However Joshua – considered in contention to, unusually, feature on the undercard of the light-heavyweight contest between his fellow Britons Craig Richards and Dan Azeez in Ghana on December 20 – according to Hearn already has a “big fight” planned for February, which would likely rule out him fighting Paul before the conclusion of 2025.
The promoter, of Matchroom, also said that they had previously been considering only a “low-key fight” before then.
“Everyone jumped the gun last night,” Hearn told the BBC. “There has been some conversations.
“Our focus is on 2026. We have a big fight planned for February, and a big fight, hopefully, against Tyson Fury next summer.
“We may run out in 2025. We were just going to have a low-key fight somewhere. If that’s go and destroy the run of Mr Paul and make several tens of millions of dollars in the process, maybe. Nothing’s confirmed yet.”
Paul, incidentally, was previously reported as on the eve of agreeing to fight another high-profile opponent in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez but endured Alvarez favouring a date with William Scull instead.
