When Jake Paul's fight with Gervonta "Tank" Davis was cancelled after the WBA lightweight champion's latest legal issues surfaced, the social media influencer-turned-boxer was determined to secure a new opponent before the end of 2025.
Several potential opponents were reportedly in play, but Paul landed on a fight with former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and the two will meet on Friday at Kaseya Center in Miami, live on Netflix.
"I didn't expect the fight with Joshua to happen this year," Paul told ESPN about his selection process. "But the plan was always to fight Gervonta Davis and then Anthony Joshua, so we bumped it up ahead of schedule."
But Paul revealed that he was very close to securing a fight with three-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford instead of Joshua and the only hang up was aligning their schedules.
"It was very close to being Crawford instead of Joshua," Paul said. "It really just came down to a timing thing and wanting to market a fight with Crawford properly. Maybe we do it in 2026 and align the schedules because we were very close to making that fight happen. It's a massive fight and when I beat Joshua it will be even bigger."
Crawford was one of several fighters that Paul told ESPN were on his updated "hit list" of opponents he wants to fight. He posted his first "hit list" on social media in 2021 and, to date, has fought six of his 12 desired opponents. Both Joshua and Crawford are on the updated hit list but one other name that was in play for a December fight that was not on his list was former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
An offer was made for Ngannou to face Paul shortly after the fight with Davis fell through. However, Ngannou told TMZ that he declined and felt "disrespected" by the idea of stepping into a boxing ring with Paul.
"It's not about the number," Ngannou said. "I am not interested. It makes no sense."
Paul told ESPN that he was "surprised" that Ngannou, who lost a narrow split decision to Tyson Fury in October of 2023 and was knocked out by Joshua in March of 2024, refused to fight him.
"I was definitely surprised but fighters aren't very smart people, especially Francis Ngannou," Paul said. "When he sees me outperform him against Joshua, he's going to be exposed for the idiot that he is. He messed up and I think he realizes that now."
Paul didn't want to look too far into the future with the Joshua fight right around the corner, but he did discuss one other name that was on his "hit list": UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Pereira is the only MMA fighter who is on Paul's new list. However, he may end up being the most difficult to land a fight with considering that he is still under contract with the UFC and Paul still has a public rift with UFC CEO Dana White. However, with White getting into the boxing business with Zuffa Boxing in 2026, perhaps there is a sliver of hope that Paul-Pereira can eventually happen.
"[Dana being a boxing promoter] definitely makes it easier for that fight to happen," Paul said. "But I don't know if the UFC will ever let one of their MMA fighters do a boxing match again. But I hope and I'd be ecstatic if it could happen. But, ultimately, I think one of their superstars taking a loss against a Disney kid isn't good for their business."
