Jake Paul has identified his “biggest mistake’’ related to his heavyweight fight against Anthony Joshua.
No, it is not failing to get his gloves up before Joshua delivered the knockout blow and broke Paul’s jaw in two places in Round 6.
Rather, Paul said he should have trained at high altitude before the fight Dec. 19 in Miami that was livestreamed by Netflix.
“That was my biggest mistake,’’ he said during a podcast co-hosted by his brother, Logan, that was published Dec. 23.
In the first two rounds of the bout, Paul moved briskly around the ring, and Joshua struggled to land punches. But when Paul started to fatigue, Joshua caught up to him and the punches began to connect. Hard.
Joshua knocked Paul down two times in the fifth round and knocked him down two times in the sixth round. That included the knockout blow.
“Yeah, I was doing good,’’ Paul said before addressing what went wrong. “I just think my cardio, just the mental pressure of the big guy.’’
Paul said he felt good about his training camp and added, “But I just needed to have that extra level of cardio for this and that can only come from going to altitude.’’
The podcast was taped Saturday, Dec. 20, a few hours after Paul had surgery on his jaw, said his mother, Pam, who was on the podcast. Paul looked dazed during his appearance but talked in detail about the fight.
During training camp, Paul sparred with heavyweights. But during the fight, Paul and Joshua wore 10-ounce gloves – considerably smaller than the gloves worn during sparring.
“So I was feeling his power a lot more,’’ Paul said of Joshua. “…. I learned a lot, and I see where I could have done better. I’m a little disappointed, but I also know how good he is.’’
Toward the end of his app;earance, Paul also reiterated his intent to continue boxing but provided no timeable for his return.