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Conor Benn warns Jake Paul over Anthony Joshua fight: ‘Have the ambulance ready’
Conor Benn has warned that Jake Paul should ‘have the ambulance ready’ ahead of his fight with Anthony Joshua, although admitted he has huge respect for how the YouTuber-turned-boxer has earned himself the bout.
Paul faces former two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua in Miami this Friday, with the contest scheduled for eight three-minute rounds and knockouts being allowed, with each man wearing standard 10oz gloves.
The fight between the heavyweight boxing behemoth and the social media influencer has endured a tidal wave of criticism, with the likes of Deontay Wilder dismissing it as a “money grab” and others raising concerns for Paul’s safety. The 28-year-old has been sparring with heavyweights to prepare for the fight, although it ominously emerged that he had his nose broken in training last week.
For his part, Joshua claims he is taking the fight “to save boxing” although the $50m guaranteed prize purse – plus bonuses for each fighter – in just the second boxing event to be broadcast live on Netflix, probably doesn’t hurt.
Paul has accrued a 12-1 record since his boxing debut back in 2020, with seven knockout wins, facing fellow influencers, basketball star Nate Robinson and MMA champions including Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley. His lone loss as a pro came against Tommy Fury, half-brother of heavyweight star Tyson Fury.
Meanwhile, Joshua has fought some of heavyweight boxing’s all-time greats, such as Wladimir Klitschko and Oleksandr Usyk, en route to being a two-time world champion and towered over this Friday’s foe at their face-off last month – standing at 6ft 6in to Paul’s 6ft 1in.
And British boxing star Benn, who recently won his middleweight rematch against bitter rival Chris Eubank Jr, has been trying to convince himself Paul has a chance of victory but is struggling to make sense of the fight.
“I’m sitting there thinking ‘I beat Jake Paul’,” Benn told iFL TV. “So if I beat Jake Paul, then I’m sitting there going ‘how does AJ not beat Jake Paul’? There’s obviously something there though, there might be a chance. Imagine... Imagine if...
“What chance do I give him? My head straight away just goes ‘have the ambulance ready’. Then part of me goes ‘but listen, we live in a world where anything can happen.’ So, I give it maybe ten per cent. He’s got gloves, he’s got a chin, he’s got hands.”
Joshua previously had a crossover clash, with Francis Ngannou in March 2024 – knocking out the former UFC heavyweight champion inside two rounds – although he lost his most recent fight against Daniel Dubois in September 2024 to take his record to 28-4, adding to a pair of defeats to Usyk and an upset by Andy Ruiz Jr.
Paul secured a controversial win over 58-year-old heavyweight great Mike Tyson last year, which was also criticised for pushing the boundaries of safety in sport, and Benn admits a respect for the YouTuber having worked his way to a fight against Joshua.
“I think it’s incredible how Jake has got himself to this position,” added Benn. “To fight a two-time heavyweight world champion, the golden boy of British boxing, of boxing as a whole, who changed the game for for all the fighters coming through.
“The man who brought boxing back to life in in the UK, sold out back-to-back stadium shows, for him to then be fighting Jake Paul just goes to show how commercially smart Jake Paul is.
“But then I'm thinking to myself, is he actually that smart? Because [if he was] then he wouldn’t have taken this fight! Or is he seeing something that we're not seeing? Is he smart, or is he just mental, but there’s a method to the madness?
“If I was him and I won that fight, I’d be like ‘don’t even look at me, don’t even breathe in my direction’. That would be the energy.
“He knows the magnitude of this event fight. I don’t know how he does it or even how he thinks he can win it but there’s obviously something there.”
