If Jake Paul wants to prove he’s legit, Turki Alalshikh is ready to find a challenge for him.
Following his lopsided win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the former YouTuber turned boxer ended up being ranked in the top 15 by the WBA in the cruiserweight division. That move upset a lot of boxing purists considering Paul still hasn’t defeated an opponent with real boxing credentials, although others have pointed out that many fighters ranked by some of the major organizations in the sport aren’t exactly
facing killers early in their careers either.
That said, Alalshikh revealed he’s ready to book Paul against former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a fight he’ll promote so the world can find out if the 28-year-old Ohio native is for real or a fraud.
“I’m not against him,” Alalshikh said when addressing Paul on The Boxing Voice podcast. “I am against some kinds of fights he [does]. I want to tell you an example and a surprise. I am thinking me and him to doing him against Joshua now. I want to tell you something, Joshua if he destroys him, it will be good for me. The headache of Jake Paul is finished.
“Let me explain it to you. Joshua against Jake Paul, if Joshua destroys him, the headache of Jake Paul will go from my mind. If Jake Paul win, I will know that Joshua is finished and Jake Paul deserves to be ranked and deserves to have a future in boxing. Right? Jake Paul accepted. Now next week I will talk with Joshua about it.”
Paul has mentioned Joshua as one of his ideal opponents for the future and now it appears Alalshikh is serious about booking that fight.
Joshua’s longtime promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed prior to the Ring III card this past weekend that he’s spoken to Alalshikh about booking the fight and they’re open to it.
The real fight Hearn wants to make is Joshua against Tyson Fury, but he knows that matchup probably won’t come together right away so he’s open to the Paul fight in the interim.
“Our focus is to fight Tyson Fury, but [Joshua] needs a fight before then,” Hearn told Boxing News. “If that’s Jake Paul, and if you guys want that fight, I know the numbers would be massive, the world would want to see it.”
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