David Benavidez says Jake Paul is in a “dangerous” situation fighting Anthony Joshua next month in their bout on December 19th. He believes that Joshua’s huge experience advantage will be too much for Paul (12-1, 7 KOs).
AJ’s Experience Is the Difference
It was announced earlier today that the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) will fight Paul on Netflix at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. Benavidez says that the last inexperienced fighter Joshua fought, Francis Ngannou, was evaporated in two rounds. He believes that Jake could suffer a similar fate.
“I’m going to be brutally honest as I can be. I give 100% respect to Jake Paul, but that’s a dangerous fight for him. He probably gets knocked out,” said David Benavidez to Fight Hub TV, predicting a victory for Anthony Joshua over Jake Paul in their eight-round contest on December 19th.
Joshua’s Vulnerable First Rounds
Joshua might be the one who gets knocked out in this fight if he gets hit clean by Jake Paul in the first two rounds. AJ was knocked down in the first round by Daniel Dubois in their fight on September 21, 2024. It came with just 0:06 remaining in the first round. Paul has a chance if he can get Joshua in trouble early in the contest before he’s got his offense ramped up. However, the longer the fight goes, the less chance Jake has of winning. He’s got to catch Joshua cold.
“I’m not trying to be a hater and say nothing bad. But Anthony Joshua is Anthony Joshua. He’s a multi-time champion, an Olympic [2012] gold medalist. The last time someone stepped in the ring with him who didn’t have that much boxing experience was [Francis] Ngannou. You saw what happened to him,” said Benavidez.
Ngannou is not as good a boxer as Jake Paul. He’s an MMA guy who took up boxing briefly and has stopped fighting after losing back-to-back fights that he didn’t rate against Joshua and Tyson Fury. He looked decent against the shell of Fury, but only because of how much ‘The Gypsy King’ has lost from his game due to age. Fury has developed bad habits of using his size to lean on his opponents. That approach didn’t work against Ngannou with his grappling skills.
Money Is Driving This Matchup
“Big respect to Jake Paul. It’s going to be a good card. It’s going to be a big, big fight. It’s a good fight. I give 100% respect to Jake Paul for even taking that fight,” said Benavidez. “It’s a lot of money. They’re going to generate a lot of money with that fight. So, I’m pretty sure that’s 100% why he took that fight,” said Benavidez when asked why Joshua agreed to fight Jake Paul.
Of course, money is the #1 reason Joshua agreed to fight Jake Paul. As Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn pointed out, AJ can make more money fighting him than he can anyone else but Tyson Fury. And with him, the dough would be equal.
The other reason Joshua is fighting Paul is that he’s been inactive for over a year and is coming off a fifth-round knockout loss to Daniel Dubois on September 21, 2024. Hearn said that the alternative was for AJ to take a “run-out” fight against a top 100-ranked fighter on the undercard.
The money he would have made in that fight would have been next to nothing. Moreover, there would be little value for Joshua in fighting a lower-level guy who would give him nothing in terms of a competitive fight. Jake Paul is a bigger payday, and there is a chance Joshua could lose because this guy has power. If Joshua gets reckless, Paul will knock him out.