Eddie Hearn reveals hefty amount of weight Anthony Joshua must shed for Jake Paul fight

Anthony Joshua will have to drop 20lbs in three weeks to make weight for his upcoming clash with Jake Paul.

AJ and Paul have signed to face each other in a controversial professional heavyweight clash on December 19.

However, the two-time unified heavyweight champion has been slapped with a strict 245lbs weight limit.

The contractual clause was implemented by Paul’s handlers as a way of levelling the playing field for their much smaller client.

Paul, a natural cruiserweight (200lbs), has only ever competed in boxing’s blue riband division once, when he tipped the scales at 227lbs to box a 58-year-old Mike Tyson last November.

Joshua, on the other hand, has boxed at heavyweight his entire career and is currently walking around at a whopping 265lbs, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn.

“I spoke to [Joshua], and he was sitting at 265lbs or something like that,” Hearn told BBC 5 Live.

“I think I told Nakisa [Bidarian] (Paul’s business partner) that he was 290lbs or something like that.

“I said I’m not interested in balloon gloves and two-minute rounds, but he said it was a real fight.

“I asked if it was ten rounds or eight rounds, they said five to eight.

“They said: ‘The only thing is that Jake will weigh about 220 pounds, and we want AJ to come down in weight.’

“He’s a heavyweight and hasn’t cut weight before.

Getty

Matchroom Boxing

“They said: ‘Look, we’re not being funny, and it’s not that we need an advantage, but we need you to have some disadvantage.”

Has Anthony Joshua ever weighed below 245lbs?

Joshua has come in below 245lbs on 17 occasions during his 28-4 professional boxing career.

But he hasn’t been that light since his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in August 2022.

More recently, Joshua has weighed between 250lbs and 255lbs.

He was 252lbs for his two outings against Francis Ngannou and Daniel Dubois last year, and 251lbs when he locked horns with Otto Wallin in December 2023.

The weight limit shouldn’t cause him too many problems, though, with AJ walking around as heavy as he is so close to fight night, he will likely have to use the sauna.