Jake Paul's legal team is taking action against online claims that his heavyweight bout with Anthony Joshua was fixed. Paul was knocked out in the sixth round of the fight in Miami last Friday, having been dropped twice in the previous round. The YouTuber-turned-boxer suffered a broken jaw in two places from the decisive right hand.
His business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, said lawyers are targeting individuals who have spread allegations of a pre-arranged outcome. One post, which attracted around 200,000 likes, claimed Joshua had agreed not to knock Paul out but disregarded the arrangement and forfeited his payday to do so. Bidarian described the claims as astonishing and said they were being pursued legally.
Bidarian insisted there had never been any question of the fight being anything other than genuine, noting that Joshua had publicly stated before the bout that failing to finish Paul within the first round would be a disappointment. He acknowledged the narrative had shifted closer to fight night and afterwards, but stressed both parties were adamant the fight was real.
Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, also dismissed suggestions of a fix, pointing to the severity of Paul's injury. He said many fighters who have suffered a broken jaw have never boxed again, and that people underestimate the impact of such an injury. Hearn's comments underline the seriousness of the bout and the physical toll on Paul.
