Online Reporter
DAVID HAYE has sensationally backed Jake Paul to pull off one of the “biggest upset in sporting history” by beating Anthony Joshua.
Paul heads into tomorrow’s Netflix fight with size, skill and experience against him, leading to safety fears for the incredibly brave or dangerously deluded American.
An unthinkable victory would top 42-1 outsider James Buster Douglas, whose 1990 knockout of Mike Tyson is still considered boxing’s greatest ever upsets.
But former heavyweight champ Haye has audaciously picked Paul to somehow beat AJ – believing there is more than meets the eye.
He said on SunSport’s No Glove Lost episode: “I think something dramatic’s gonna happen.
“For instance, if AJ’s Achilles snaps in the first round, what happens if he dislocates his shoulder?
“So there’s a chance this stuff happens. He’s got a new coach. He’s throwing punches from new angles. Something could happen.
“I’m going the complete opposite way. I think it’s gonna be the biggest, somehow, I don’t know how it’s gonna happen, but I think it’s gonna be the biggest upset in sporting history.
“I think there’s something that’s gonna happen either a no contest or something a cut for instance, a big clash of heads or something’s gonna happen.
“I don’t know why, I’m going the opposite way. Something’s gonna happen.”
Haye’s prediction is eyebrow raising, considering Joshua brutally knocked out 6ft 4in, 270lb MMA star Francis Ngannou in 2024.
But Haye, 45, argued: “He was afraid that Ngannou was a big guy. He was a UFC champion, and he just beat Tyson Fury in my opinion.
“So he’s not going in against, as I said, Disney Club kid who’s just started doing boxing, has never fought, that’s his mindset. Something’s going wrong.
“Why would Jake Paul, who could pick anybody in the world, pick, maybe he knows something.
“Maybe AJ’s got some mad injury that we don’t know about, and he’s got one arm, maybe he broke his hand in training, wants to come up and pick the 70 million up.
“‘I can win it with one hand.’ Maybe they know, I don’t know, there’s something happening that Jake Paul and his team know that the rest of the world doesn’t know, including me.
“He doesn’t need it. He could have thought anyone else had got that same money. A real fighter doesn’t have to go to the legitimate top 10 in the world who’s a former world champion.
“He could have picked some UFC fighter, he could have picked a bare knuckle fighting champion or anybody, and he would have still filled out the same amount of seats, made the same amount of money on Netflix because he brings the hype.”
Joshua, 36, returns for the first time since his September 2024 knockout loss to Daniel Dubois, 28.
Paul, 28, meanwhile beat former middleweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, 39, in his last cruiserweight bout in June.
He moves up to heavyweight for only the second time, having beaten Mike Tyson in November when the boxing great made a controversial comeback at 58.
His fight with Joshua is to be professionally sanctioned, with 10oz gloves worn over eight scheduled rounds.
But Haye’s co-panel star Derek Chisora warned: “We say if AJ loses, he has to retire.
“Mate, if AJ goes one round, two rounds, fine. If he goes three, four, five then we have to start questioning AJ as well.
“Because he cannot be in the ring with Anthony Joshua. So if he goes one or two, we’re OK with one and two.
“We’re not OK with three, four, five, and if it goes to points, then I have to phone him and say, ‘Yo, what are you doing?’” – Sun
