‘The fight can absolutely happen’ – Jake Paul promoter targets blockbuster AJ clash

Jake Paul promoter Nakisa Bidarian told Sky Sports he is having discussions with Eddie Hearn over a blockbuster fight with Anthony Joshua.

Joshua, who has not fought since losing to Daniel Dubois in September last year, underwent elbow surgery in May but is targeting a return to the ring later in 2025.

Since then, YouTuber-turned-professional boxer Paul beat veterans Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at heavyweight and cruiserweight respectively.

After defeating Chavez by unanimous decision last month, Paul audaciously called for a showdown with Joshua and has met with Turki Alalshikh to try and make it happen.

“I think the fight can absolutely happen,” Bidarian told Sky Sports News. “I’m looking at it as Jake versus Joshua, which is quite biblical, and it’s quite impactful in many ways.

“I think size wise, we can get comfortable with it, and I think experience wise, Jake is learning very fast and growing, and Joshua is a little long in the tooth. So it could be a very interesting matchup, and we’re actively discussing it with Matchroom.

“I think we’re looking at it happening at the start of 2026. It’s public that AJ was taking a little time away, I think he had a little surgery. So once he’s ready, and once Jake is ready, we’re going to squarely focus on that.

“It’s a fight that Jake wants to do, and that’s a discussion we’ve had at length, and he feels very confident about where he is in his career and his chances of upsetting Anthony Joshua.”

There are plenty of concerns over whether Paul will be able to make the step up to take on a world-leading heavyweight like Joshua, but Bidarian is adamant his star client would not take the fight if he wasn’t ready.

“Power is obviously the last thing to go,” he added. “So obviously, AJ has a ton of power, and he’s still fairly young. Mike Tyson – much more vicious of a knockout artist than Anthony Joshua – that was a risk Jake was willing to take.

“Francis Ngannou, amazing MMA fighter, very powerful man, but not an experienced boxer, right? He is a lot less experienced than Jake Paul. So if people were comfortable with Francis getting in there with AJ, Jake, who is now 13 fights in, plus one amateur fight, then we are comfortable with this.

“Wembley’s definitely a possibility. Jake said he’d like to do it there. He likes the idea of going in and hearing 90,000 people booing him!”

Tyson Fury is currently retired from boxing but has teased a return to the sport, and promoter Hearn is still keen to make a Joshua-Fury fight.

“AJ has been out [of action] for coming up to a year in September, so we definitely want to fight again,” Hearn said earlier this month.

Hearn: A chance to ‘extinguish’ Jake Paul from world of boxing

Paul is most famous for his YouTube career but has now won 12 fights after launching his professional career in 2020.

The 28-year-old suffered defeat to Tommy Fury in 2023 but has gone on to beat former UFC star Nate Diaz, professional American boxers Andre August and Ryan Bourland, plus former UFC fighter Mike Perry.

A controversially-sanctioned bout against Tyson is Paul’s only heavyweight fight so far, before he stepped down to cruiserweight against Chavez.

“AJ-Paul is never a fight we anticipated, and it’s never a fight we’ve targeted,” Hearn added. “But if you want Jake Paul to be the warm-up fight [for Fury] – and obviously, financially, it’s a great opportunity for AJ – and you want to provide AJ with the opportunity to extinguish Jake Paul from the world of boxing, then maybe AJ would oblige.

“Jake’s a big, strong cruiserweight. I don’t think he’s particularly competitive, but we know in the world we live in, a lot of people would watch it.

“It may be the biggest fight that can be made, bizarrely, in the sport. I’m not going to sit here and tell you, ‘yeah, it’s a great challenge’.

“I think he gets flattened ASAP, but there’ll be a huge amount of people globally that would want to watch that.

“We’ll see. His Excellency said to us, ‘would you be interested in making the fight?’ I can’t say no, because until we know the proposal, maybe. And if Jake Paul is crazy enough to step in the ring with Anthony Joshua, and he might be, because of the amount of money that will be at stake, who knows? You could see AJ against Jake Paul next.”

Harper joins MVP, Dubois or Holm up next?

Bidarian says three-weight world champion Terri Harper could face Caroline Dubois or Holly Holm soon after signing with Most Valuable Promotions.

“I’m super excited to announce that we have signed Terry Harper as well. She has fought in five different divisions, 20 fights into her career. We think the future’s very bright for her and the rest of the UK.

“I think there’s some big fights for her. Caroline Dubois, who has fought on Sky a number of times, we’re excited about the potential of that fight. We recently signed champion Stephanie Hahn in the 135 weight class, who’s fighting in August. That’s another potential fight for her.

“Holly Holm was a world class boxer before women’s boxing was getting its due. She’s already in the boxing Hall of Fame. She came to UFC and had the biggest upset in UFC history when she knocked out Ronda Rousey in front of 80,000 people in Australia. Now Holly has returned to boxing and her goal is to become a 135 pound champion. So that’s another potential fight for Terry Harper down the road.”