Joshua and Paul earn riches but deliver budget sporting spectacle

Such was the oddity of Anthony Joshua v Jake Paul even taking place, the fight landed on Netflix under a cloud of suspicion that boxing had surrendered itself to choreography.

To be clear, this was a sanctioned professional contest, not a scripted event – and the storyline it produced was mundane and predictably one-sided.

No scriptwriter would have come up with something like this.

The plot played out in the ring was lifeless – a slow, joyless watch that would have struggled to earn even a charitable rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

And the ultimate irony is that this spectacle has provided one of Joshua’s biggest paydays and, in all likelihood, his largest television audience.

With seconds remaining in the fourth round, referee Christopher Young perhaps spoke for viewers around the world when he pulled the fighters together and urged them to engage.

Directing his comments at Paul, he said: “Fans didn’t pay to see this crap.”

“Amen,” replied Netflix commentator Mauro Ranallo. “Christopher Young with the call of the night.”

All week Joshua spoke about “carrying boxing on his back”. On Friday night in Miami, he dumped the load, but only after an awkward and laboured process.

Paul was there to survive.

The man who spent fight week promising the greatest upset in sporting history instead avoided engagement.

He circled endlessly – making the most of the space afford by a ring two feet wider than normal – and attempted to run down the clock.

When he did make contact, it was with echoes of his schoolboy past as a wrestler, constantly going low and grabbing Joshua’s leg.

There was an embarrassing lack of punches by Paul and a litany of wild swings from Joshua that even a novice like his opponent was able to easily evade.

“It’s a win but it’s not a success,” Joshua said afterwards. “I’ve got a lot of improving I’ve got to do. I’m not happy.”

Joshua earned his share of a reported £210m purse, but from a boxing perspective – and for those in the UK who stayed up into the early hours to watch – the contest was meaningless.

Joshua stood in the ring and told the crowd he did not care about legacy. It was an honest line, and a fairly accurate one, because nothing that just happened was going to add to it.

The 36-year-old is a schooled heavyweight, an Olympic gold medallist and a former two-time world champion.

He has left a significant footprint on the sport and inspired a generation of fighters and fans.

But going six rounds before doing the inevitable against Paul – a 28-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer who had never faced anything close to elite level – will not enhance that legacy.

“I wish I could have knocked him out at the start,” Joshua said. “But as we saw, Jake has spirit, he has some heart. He tried his best and I take my hat off to him.”

The fight underlined how boxing’s landscape is shifting, with Netflix-driven hype and commercial appeal increasingly trumping sporting logic.

It is the same thinking that has recently fuelled talk of Irish star Katie Taylor facing former UFC champion Ronda Rousey.

Joshua, for his part, is open to operating in that space.

Two of his past three fights have now come against boxing novices – first UFC fighter Francis Ngannou, and now Paul. His only other outing in that period ended in a heavy knockout defeat by a top-level heavyweight in Daniel Dubois.

The Dubois bout suggested Joshua is in decline, the toil of 33 professional fights after an amateur career eroding his powers.

Amid that backdrop, who can really blame him for taking the money and spotlight afforded at this stage in his career?

When promoter Eddie Hearn was asked about reports linking Joshua with a February bout against kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, he did not rule it out.

“Rico or whoever it is, we haven’t finalised that yet,” Hearn said. “The date is what we’re going to work out in the next four, five, six days. We’re not going to rush him back if he’s not quite ready. But we won’t be long.”

Paul has spent years demanding to be recognised as a “real” boxer.

He has called out the likes of 35-year-old Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez – who has held world titles at four weight categories from light middleweight to light heavyweight – while at the same time picking opponents ranging from retired MMA fighters and faded ex-champions to reality TV personalities and even a grandfather.

Somehow he talked his way into fighting an Olympic gold medallist and former heavyweight champion in Joshua, despite being a novice cruiserweight.

In fight week some observers claimed he was of a regional level standard as a fighter.

So how did this happen?

The Disney-actor-turned-YouTuber-turned-boxer has more than 55m followers across his social media platforms.

And that audience and interest level is money.

Paul is said by Forbes to be worth $50m (£37.5m).

He trains out of a £3m converted warehouse in Puerto Rico, a full-time base with recovery suites, a strength and conditioning centre and high-end equipment used by elite professionals.

Conditioning coach Larry Wade, who has worked with world champions such as Shawn Porter and Badou Jack, oversees his physical work.

Head trainer Theo Chambers, who learned his craft at Detroit’s famed Kronk Gym, runs technical sessions alongside former world title challenger J’Leon Love.

Moments after his defeat, he told the world about his suspected broken jaw and spat out blood for dramatic effect.

He also spoke of his determination to be a world champion.

With his audience reach influence and his resources expect to see him back in a boxing ring again no matter how much of a farce this fight was at times.

The surreal nature of the event was underlined at the post-fight news conference when Joshua put on his best Tyson Fury voice after being asked if he’d like to fight his British rival next.

“I give the dosser eight weeks; 24 hours to sign a contract. Let’s see if he is a man. Greedy belly!” he laughed, sounding more like a pirate than the Morecambe native, who has also been world heavyweight champion.

It was comical, sure, but it also summed up the strangeness of the whole night.

Joshua and Fury should have faced each other long ago. The fight is no longer what it once was, but it would still be enormous and would still sell out a stadium. The question, then, is why it should be delayed again.

When it was put to Joshua, he said he would be happy to fight Fury next. Hearn insisted it could happen.

Boxing, and Joshua, have been here before.

In 2023, he and Deontay Wilder appeared on the same bill in Riyadh with the clear intention of finally meeting. Joshua beat Otto Wallin. Wilder lost to Joseph Parker. The fight never materialised.

Delay, diversion and interim fights have a habit of killing boxing’s biggest moments.

That is the risk now facing Joshua and Fury – especially in a sport increasingly distracted by spectacle.

Joshua-Paul will not be the last of its kind. And if boxing wants to change the direction of travel, it may be time to rewrite the script.

But in the face of competition from entertainment-based contests like this, and boxing’s inability to put on the key fights people want to see – like Joshua v Fury in their prime – only time will tell if more repeats are served up rather than new blockbusters.