Noel Mikaelian is set for a very real rematch with WBC cruiserweight titlist Badou Jack one week ahead of a Jake Paul-Anthony Joshua clash he views as a gimmick fight.
“I was just speaking to somebody else about it, I mean, it's probably also just a media gag,” Mikaelian told BoxingScene. “I can’t imagine him being in the ring with Anthony Joshua and it’s not scripted.”
Paul-Joshua is set to headline a December 19 Netflix event from Kaseya Center in Miami. The eight-round heavyweight fight will only become official should Joshua – a former two-time, unified heavyweight champion – weigh at or below the contracted maximum limit of 245lbs.
Six days prior, Mikaelian, 27-3 (12 KOs), hopes to change his luck against Jack, 29-3-3 (17 KOs), at Ace Mission Studio in Los Angeles. The two met in May, with Jack taking a questionable majority decision victory to retain the title once held by Mikaelian.
That decision, as well as one made outside the ring by Paul, changed the course of how his 2025 campaign could have looked.
The likeable, Pedro Diaz-trained contender Mikaelian successfully appealed and was granted an immediate rematch.
However, when it looked as though Jake Paul might make a run at a cruiserweight title – having been ranked No. 14 by the WBA – Mikaelian heard his name being mentioned for the fighting celebrity.
Mikaelian, 35, is from fighting stock in that his stepfather, Khoren Gevor, was a former world title challenger and European middleweight champion.
There is no way, as Mikaelian made his way through the amateurs in Germany, that he thought a fight with someone like Paul would be plausible.
“I would not even think that something like that is possible, like that boxing would go that route,” he told BoxingScene.
“A lot of people [were] mentioning it [that he would face Paul]. I spoke to his ex-coach and he said, ‘Maybe in five years.’ I don't know, like I'm ready any time; tomorrow, today, like ‘Jake, let's get it on.’ If you want to dance and spar around or whatever you want to do, we can make it happen.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
