Jake Paul had a “serious reality check” in his knockout loss to Anthony Joshua and will not think he can reach world-class level, says Sky Sports expert Johnny Nelson.
Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion, struggled to pin down Paul in the early rounds in Miami but finally ended the fight with a huge right hand in the sixth round – one that left his opponent with a broken jaw, which required surgery.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, ex-world cruiserweight champion Nelson has had his say on…
What could Paul have learned from the fight?
“I think he realised the task in hand when he stood there in the 22-foot ring.
“He sees an Adonis of a fighter, former world champion Anthony Joshua, in the other corner and that’s when reality hit fiction.
“Everything he had in his head, everything he thought that he could possibly do had disappeared, slipped out of the ring with the cornermen and he thought ‘wow, this is for real’
“Even a little jab that just gently missed him, you could see him thinking ‘what is this about?’ So it was a case of survival and I didn’t want Joshua to knock him out, if I’m honest with you. I thought ‘you’ve got to make this kid have a reality check’ and that’s what he actually did.
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Sky Sports’ Johnny Nelson gives his take on Anthony Joshua’s victory against Jake Paul and says Paul’s KO defeat was a ‘reality check’ for Paul
“Boxing looks so easy on the TV, it looks so matter of fact, no big deal – until you get punched and then reality kicks in.
“Jake Paul has done a brilliant job of promoting himself, promoting this fight, evoking human emotion and I think he’ll be a great promoter down the line. You had all these amazing fights on the undercard, all the female fighters getting their chance to shine, and I thought ‘you know what, you’re doing your job, you’ve got everyone talking about you.
Anthony Joshua punches Jake Paul during their heavyweight boxing match
Will that ‘reality check’ now hit Paul?
“Jake Paul did this on a world stage so everything he said he’d do before, all the bragging and all promises he made to himself, now he’s going to feel what normal fighters feel – the embarrassment, the uncomfortableness of the reality of what actually happened to him.
Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul during their heavyweight bout
“So will he think he’ll ever get to that [world] level? No, I don’t. Do I think he’s a domestic-level fighter? Yes, I do. I think now when he’s shouting out all these bold requests about ‘I want to fight Anthony Joshua’, ‘I want to fight Canelo’, now he’ll think long and hard about it.
“He’s got himself into a position where he can generate that interest to get the fights on but, in reality now, he’s just shown his level as well.
“He went in there and he had a reality check – and it was a serious reality check.”
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Anthony Joshua calls for a blockbuster clash with Tyson Fury after his win over Jake Paul. Video courtesy of Netflix and MVP. Jake vs Joshua is now available to watch globally only on Netflix
Did Joshua impress you?
“Anthony Joshua couldn’t have done any more.
“When you get in the ring with somebody that is constantly trying to just survive and run, you can’t do anything about it.
“Our sport is built up of journeymen like what Jake Paul did – he’s trying to survive; he’s not trying to engage. So therefore, it’s your job to cut him down and catch up to him.
“Joshua was open to a lot of criticism because this guy didn’t come to engage. If he came to engage then it would have been a completely different story.”
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Tyson Fury took social media to launch a tirade against Anthony Joshua ahead of AJ’s bout with Jake Paul
Do you think we’ll see Fury vs Joshua in 2026?
“We’ve had it every year – ‘it could happen, it could happen’.
“It’s the biggest fight in the world right now and neither of these guys have got a world title.
“It’s the biggest fight out there but until you have just one of them saying ‘yeah, we sat down and we’ve got a deal done’, I don’t believe it.
“I think it’s hot air.”
