Okolie offers himself to Jake Paul to prepare against Anthony Joshua

Lawrence Okolie Offers to Help Jake Paul for His Fight Against Anthony Joshua

British heavyweight Lawrence Okolie has expressed his willingness to assist Jake Paul in his preparation for the anticipated fight against Anthony Joshua, even proposing sparring sessions with the YouTuber-turned-boxer. The fight between Paul and Joshua, scheduled for eight professional rounds with 10-ounce gloves, was announced last Monday and will take place in Miami. This will be Joshua’s first fight since September 2024, when he suffered a knockout defeat in the fifth round against Daniel Dubois.

Okolie, former cruiserweight champion (22-1, 16 KOs), is in full preparation for his own fight, which will coincide with the Paul-Joshua fight on December 19 in Nigeria. This will be his first encounter since July, when he suffered a biceps injury in the first round. Currently at a training camp in Dubai, Okolie has offered his help to Paul, largely motivated by curiosity and a desire to prevent the inexperienced boxer from suffering a severe defeat.

“I want to go help Jake Paul, give him a chance. I want to go to Puerto Rico. What I don’t want to happen to him is for him to be completely destroyed in a round or something like that, if AJ sets his mind to it,” Okolie declared.

Lawrence Okolie

Okolie wants Paul to have a realistic experience of what it means to face a world-class heavyweight. “I have a fight ahead, but I’ll go for a couple of weeks. I want to know what allows Jake Paul to say to himself: ‘I’m going to get in the ring with a muscular 250-pound man from England, this big guy, Olympic gold, two-time heavyweight world champion, in front of millions of fans on Netflix.’ I need to know. Maybe he has a secret that I don’t know,” he added. Okolie has been Joshua’s sparring partner in the past, but on Tuesday he did not rule out the possibility of the fight going beyond a couple of rounds, as is commonly expected. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend there isn’t a huge difference in size, ability, in every aspect. But, crazier things have happened. So, we’ll see,” Okolie commented. “From what I’ve heard from AJ, I don’t think he’s going to throw a massive right hand and finish him in 30 seconds. I do think that if Jake Paul touches him, it will be like ‘OK’ [Joshua knockout]. You know when you’re sparring with someone who isn’t at your level, you can calculate how much to put into your punches and go, OK, I’m going to [box]. He hasn’t been in the ring in a while, maybe he’ll use it as an exercise. If Jake Paul hits him and doesn’t knock him out the first time, he hits him hard, that’s when I think it will get interesting. But crazier things have happened, I don’t know.”