Johnny Nelson did not mince his words when he sat down to discuss Anthony Joshua‘s impending clash with Jake Paul, using the fight taking place on Friday night in Miami as the backdrop for one of his starkest assessments yet of where Joshua stands mentally and emotionally at this stage of his career.
With the former two-time unified heavyweight champion preparing to step into the ring against the YouTuber-turned-boxer on one of the most scrutinised nights of his career, Nelson believes the bout has become about far more than novelty or money.
Instead, he sees it as a referendum on Joshua himself – a fighter who, in Nelson’s view, is mentally fragile, no longer driven by the hunger required to reclaim a world title, and permanently scarred by the humiliation of his defeat to Daniel Dubois.
Nelson framed Jake Paul as little more than a sideshow, a ‘pest’ whose presence in boxing can only be justified if elite fighters deal with him properly. From his perspective, with the fight now just days away, there is only one acceptable way for Joshua to approach it.
‘If we want to be rid of this pest, as in Jake Paul, my advoice to AJ would be to torment him,’ Nelson said on episode two of The Hook. ‘You’ve got to take him to a place he’s never been before and make him never want to go back there.’
He painted a vivid picture of domination not simply as a physical act, but as psychological warfare, arguing Joshua should ‘hit him, hurt him, don’t finish him,’ dragging the fight out to mentally break Paul round by round. ‘It’s not just a physical assault… it’s a mental assault as well,’ Nelson said, warning that forcing a fighter to quit is something that lingers long after the bruises fade.
WATCH Episode two of The Hook with Johnny Nelson and Dave Allen here !
Johnny Nelson (pictured above) did not mince his words when he sat down to discuss AJ’s impending clash with Jake Paul on Friday night
The Olympic gold medallist will face the YouTuber-turned-boxer in Miami on Friday night
WATCH Episode two of The Hook with Johnny Nelson and Dave Allen on YouTube now
Yet even as Nelson spoke about how Joshua should dismantle Paul on Friday night, his underlying concern was clear: this fight isn’t really about Jake Paul at all. It’s about the Olympic gold medallist.
‘This isn’t about Jake Paul. It’s about AJ,’ he stressed. With millions watching in Miami and around the world, Nelson believes Joshua’s biggest opponent will be his own mindset.
Nelson pointed to repeated moments throughout Joshua’s recent career where the former champion has looked unsure, distracted or emotionally vulnerable under pressure.
‘Everybody’s gonna be watching AJ, because we’ve seen him mentally be fragile in situations when you think, ‘Oh, he’s done it again,’ Nelson said. ‘He’s left his tools in the dressing room again. He’s not concentrated again.’
That fragility, in Nelson’s eyes, was brutally exposed in Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois. Rather than framing it as a hard-fought defeat to a dangerous opponent, Nelson described it as a performance that raised alarming questions about Joshua’s focus and preparation.
‘He performed like a novice against Daniel Dubois,’ he said, suggesting Joshua underestimated his opponent and paid the price. The images from that night – Joshua smiling after being caught, appearing disoriented, trying to steady himself instead of instinctively responding are moments Nelson believes will follow him forever.
‘Everybody saw you got hit. Get on with the job,’ he said, recalling his disbelief as the fight slipped away. ‘He was smiling at the time but his legs were gone. He can’t have a mentality like that. Laughing and so on. Get on with your job.’
Nelson’s criticism extends far beyond one bad night. He questions whether Joshua still possesses the deep hunger that once drove him to world titles, arguing that the heavyweight division has moved on while Joshua has stalled.
Nelson’s criticism extends far beyond one bad night. He questions whether Joshua still possesses the deep hunger that once drove him to world titles
The fight on Friday night will be Joshua’s first since he was beaten by Daniel Dubois last year
Joshua built his name through his rags-to-riches story and desire to give back to boxing
‘AJ is at a point in his career where he’s up against these young guns,’ Nelson said, fighters who are ‘hungry’ and dangerous precisely because they are chasing what Joshua has already had.
Long periods out of the ring, combined with mega-paydays and commercial opportunities, have left Nelson unconvinced that Joshua truly believes he can reach the summit again.
‘AJ is at a point in his career where he’s up against these young guns. And because he’s up against these young guns that are hungry, they’ve got an appetite, they’ve got a want, they’ve got desire that makes it more dangerous for him.’
‘He’s been out of the ring far too long to tell me he’s hungry enough to want it, to really and truly believe he can be world champion again. Of course, you’ve got to say that to yourself, otherwise, there’s no point in doing it. You’ve got to put that in your head. You’ve got to give yourself aim but I don’t really believe he wants it,’ he said bluntly.
In Nelson’s view, Joshua now fights more like a mercenary than a man driven by legacy. ‘So is he a mercenary? He’s just in it for the money,’ he said, questioning whether Joshua’s public declarations about becoming champion again are more self-persuasion than genuine belief.
‘Do I think he really believes he can be world champion again? No, I don’t.’ That doubt, Nelson argues, is exactly what makes Friday night dangerous. With no pressure on Paul and everything to lose for Joshua, even a single clean shot landing could be framed as failure.
‘If Jake Paul has 30 seconds of success, AJ is going to get criticised,’ Nelson said. ‘If he lands one shot, AJ is going to get criticised. Everyone is going to pick holes in his performance.’
This is why Nelson insists Joshua cannot afford even a hint of complacency or showmanship when the bell rings in Miami. Smiling, posing for cameras or treating the contest as entertainment would, in Nelson’s words, be a repeat of the same mistakes that led to the Dubois loss.
‘If he doesn’t respect him… then Jake Paul may have a chance of at least landing with a shot,’ he warned. ‘AJ needs to torment the life out of him and show him the difference in class.’
The only solution, Nelson believes, is for Joshua to adopt a spiteful, hostile mindset, one rooted in anger and resentment rather than comfort. He urged Joshua to imagine Paul as someone who has come ‘to mock me, to belittle me, to undermine me, to derail my career,’ and to fight accordingly.
Paul beat Mike Tyson last year and has only lost one since turning to boxing (pictured above)
Still, no matter what happens on Friday night, Nelson is adamant that the shadow of Dubois will never fully lift.
‘AJ will never get over it,’ he said of the embarrassment of that defeat. ‘He’ll never get over the embarrassment of that loss. He was even saying in the corner about Dubois not being very good and he did that to him. But, he needs to find a way to get over it.’
Instead of trying to bury it, Nelson believes Joshua must confront it head-on, pointing to Lennox Lewis’s immediate demand for a rematch after being knocked out by Hasim Rahman as the blueprint.
‘How will he get past it? The first thing I would have done if I was AJ, I’d say I want a rematch. That’s the guy I want to fight next,’ Nelson said. ‘That’s the only way AJ gets over it. Because, in his head, it was quite clear we didn’t respect the man that was in front of him, and in his head, he’s better than the man that was in front of him.
‘Now he’s got to accept he isn’t. And if you’ve been a champion of the world and you really believe you’re the best in the world, then all of a sudden you’re not. It’s hard to live with.’
For Nelson, the key difference is ownership. ‘It wasn’t left to his promoter or his trainer… it was down to him,’ he said, insisting that only Joshua himself can reclaim any sense of closure.