Some insults hurt more than others, and a few of the worst ones don’t sound like insults at all. Call a fighter a bum and at least you’re admitting he got under your skin. Call his power alright and you’ve reviewed him like a gas station burrito you ate at 2 a.m. You’ll survive it, and you won’t tell anybody about it.
That’s the grade Anthony Joshua handed Jake Paul. Yardbarker carried the verdict under a headline built around one word: the former heavyweight world champion rated the YouTuber-turned-boxer’s punching power as alright. That word is a bigger problem for Paul than any trash talk he’s eaten in years, and the timing makes it worse.
Why Alright Stings
Paul has always been a great villain, and I mean that as a compliment. I love a guy who makes half the arena pay to watch him lose. But a villain only works if there’s a threat underneath the act. People hate-watch because some small, annoying part of their brain whispers that he might actually crack somebody. Power is the whole engine. It’s the thing that turns a social media personality into a guy who sells real fights.
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When a hater dunks on that power, Paul can shrug it off. Haters dunk on everything. When a former heavyweight world champion looks at it and lands on alright, that’s a professional appraisal. Nobody screams alright. Joshua passed on the chance to build a feud or call Paul overrated for clicks. He gave the quiet, shrugging answer that somebody gives when he doesn’t feel threatened, and that’s a lot harder for a promoter to turn into a poster.
Paul keeps teasing matchups with premier professional boxers. Fine. Call your shot. I’m all for fighters who call their shot and back it up. The trouble is that the guys at the top of that sport hear alright and do the math the same way Joshua apparently did.
The Christmas Eve Tell
Now look at what got announced this week. On Oct. 29, Most Valuable Promotions posted on X that Paul is back on Thursday, Dec. 24, in Dubai, billed as a Christmas Eve spectacle. MVP said the show is happening alongside Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism and the Dubai Sports Council, and it dropped a video of Paul and co-founder Nakisa Bidarian talking up the event. Later that day, MVP posted Bidarian addressing Paul’s return along with the recent news about Amanda Serrano’s final fight.
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Then came the name. MMA Fighting’s Morning Report flagged that Bidarian teased Darren Till as a possible opponent for Paul.
So walk through this with me. In one week, Paul’s camp is selling a holiday blockbuster in Dubai, the premier-boxer talk is still floating around, and the opponent getting teased is Darren Till. Whatever you think of Till, his name doesn’t match the pitch about Paul coming for the elite. Nobody hears it and thinks the top of the boxing rankings just got nervous.
And I’m not even mad about it. Big-money crossover fights are my weakness. Put Paul and Till on a Christmas Eve card in Dubai, let them wreck a press conference, and I’ll be on my couch with eggnog. That fight would be fun. My problem is the packaging. Promotions that sell fans a premier-boxer dream and then ship a teased crossover are treating us like ATMs, and Joshua’s one-word review shows how wide the gap is between the talk and the bookings.
What Paul Actually Needs
If Paul wants Joshua’s review to age badly, another promo video with a skyline behind him won’t do it. He needs to put somebody down in a way that makes a former heavyweight champ wince. Do that and Joshua’s one-word grade turns into the clip Paul reposts for a month with a laughing emoji. Fail to do it and the word follows him into every negotiation with a real boxer, because every one of those guys now has a former world champion’s scouting report sitting in his back pocket.
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The Till tease isn’t confirmed, so treat it as a tease. Bidarian floated it, and the matchmaking could still go somewhere else before December. If MVP really wants to sell the premier-boxer idea, Dubai on Christmas Eve is the moment to name an opponent who makes Joshua take it back.
Paul has until Thursday, Dec. 24, to give us a reason to upgrade the review. Right now, the sharpest analysis of his power came from a guy who didn’t even sound annoyed by it.
