Joshua under 245-pound limit for clash with Paul

• Andreas HaleDec 19, 2025, 05:16 AM

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  Andreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.

MIAMI – Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua made weight for their improbably heavyweight clash set for Friday at Kaseya Center, live on Netflix.

Paul weighed in at 216.6 pounds, 11 pounds less than his November 2024 win over Mike Tyson. Joshua came in at 243.4 pounds. It was contracted that Joshua couldn’t weight more than 245 pounds and he came in under the limit. He weighed 240 pounds for his 2021 fight with Oleksandr Usyk and 244.5 pounds in the rematch, both were losses. He weighed a career high 255.25 pounds in his 2023 decision win over Jermaine Franklin.

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For Paul, who has campaigned primarily as a cruiserweight, he told ESPN that he had to shift gears in training camp after changing opponents from lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis in a 195-pound maximum catchweight bout to the former two-time unified heavyweight champion to accommodate for the size difference.

“It was a complete 180,” Paul told ESPN. “I had to get 270-pound sparring partners who were very physical. I had to put on more muscle by hitting the weights and get used to being punched by giants.”

In the co-main event, Alycia Baumgardner weighed in at 129.2 pounds for her unified super featherweight title defense against Leila Beudoin, who came in at 130 pounds.

Also on the card, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva came in at 191.4 pounds for his fight with former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who clocked in at 194 pounds for their six-round cruiserweight tilt.