Lennox Lewis has issued his verdict on the respective performances of Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul, the latter of which found himself on the receiving end of a sixth-round knockout earlier this morning.
The pair squared off in a heavyweight encounter at the Kaseya Center, Miami, with Joshua flooring the internet star four times to eventually emerge victorious.
Prior to their contest, many suspected that Paul – a relative novice, moving up from cruiserweight – would get stopped in either the first or second round.
To his credit, Paul was successful at doing just that for a limited amount of time, before his gas tank ran empty and fatigue began to kick in.
At that point, the writing was practically on the wall, and Joshua, who had hardly turned in a scintillating performance until that point, was able to nail his man with a crushing right hand.
Throughout their largely lacklustre contest, Paul would repeatedly take refuge by dropping to the canvas, using the infringement as a sort of defence mechanism, until the pressure from Joshua simply became too intense.
That, perhaps, is partly why heavyweight legend Lewis was underwhelmed by the performance of Paul, believing that the American’s ceiling in the sport is only so high.
In that same breath, the former undisputed champion also told Boxing News that ‘AJ’s more impressive engine and experience was what made a sizeable difference.
“Anthony Joshua did what he had to do. He had a guy in front of him that was running around, not really throwing too [many] punches.
“It was basically just a matter of time before [Joshua] got to him. It really came down to conditioning, and Anthony Joshua was in superb shape compared to his opponent.
“I thought Jake Paul’s performance was basic. That’s how he performs – it can’t get any better – and [he was] up against an Olympian, a [former] world champion, so I don’t see how he’s supposed to look really good.”
