Anthony Joshua’s looming showdown with Jake Paul could end up being the Brit’s final stroll to the ring, with the former heavyweight king edging closer to the retirement age he once promised himself.
Joshua, 36, is set to face YouTuber-turned-pugilist Paul in a hastily arranged heavyweight scrap on 19 December in Miami, a bout thrown together after Paul’s Netflix date with Gervonta Davis collapsed amid fresh allegations made against the WBA lightweight champion.
Instead of Davis, Paul now walks straight into the path of a two-time unified heavyweight champion who, despite a rough couple of years, still hits like a lorry. Plenty of fans on both sides of the pond reckon the American will get chucked out of the sport the moment Joshua lands clean.
But there’s also a growing sense that this could be the last time we see ‘AJ’ under the lights. The Watford star hasn’t held a world title since 2021, when Oleksandr Usyk relieved him of his belts before repeating the trick in their 2022 rematch. Since then, Joshua pieced together a four-fight winning run, capped by flattening Francis Ngannou – only for Daniel Dubois to blast him out at Wembley in brutal fashion earlier this year.
And that’s where the whispers started up again. Joshua once said, back in his prime, that 36 was about the right time to call it quits. “I think 36 is a good age to retire,” he told the 5 Live Boxing podcast in 2021, adding that he didn’t want to become ‘one of them names remembered for being knocked out by someone else’.
He even pointed to old greats like Trevor Berbick and Cleveland Williams, men remembered more for who put them down than what they achieved. “For me, 37, 36… 36 going on 37,” he said then. Well, that birthday’s already ticked over.
And if you listen to Carl Froch, the Paul fight is basically Joshua signing off on his own career anyway. Speaking to SunSport this week, the former super-middleweight world champion didn’t mince his words. “I said that over a year ago when he got flattened by Daniel Dubois,” Froch insisted. “I said he was finished then and all he could do was try to make even more money. It vindicates my opinion that his career is finished.”
A win over Paul won’t restore Joshua’s old titles, but it could shape how he bows out – with one last statement, or with more questions over a glittering reign that’s drifted off course. Either way, all eyes now turn to Miami for what might be the final chapter of the AJ era.
