• Joshua may lose £32m to taxes
The fight may be over, but the hard work continues for Jake Paul’s team. After being plagued by various reports suggesting that his fights are rigged, the YouTube star has instructed his lawyers to take action against anyone who suggests so, reports givemesport.com.
  
Writing on X, Jake stated: “After years of letting it slide as just ‘haters being haters’, I have asked my team to vigorously go after anyone who makes up lies about my boxing career. Expect to get served, you pigs.
 
“I’ve dedicated my life to boxing, and I will no longer let those with a public profile harm me or the sport I love and respect, without consequences,” added Paul, who made his professional boxing debut in 2020, aged 23. 
  
As per the Daily Mail, the American boxer has hired Alex Spiro, who counts Elon Musk and Jay-Z among his clientele.
 
But regardless of whether Paul had rigged the outcomes of previous fights, he was unable to stop what many thought was inevitable on Friday night. After being dominated for six rounds, two-time heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, put Paul to the sword with a devastating knockout blow that left The Problem Child needing surgery for a double broken jaw.
 
Former UFC champion, Israel Adesanya, weighed in on the bout on his YouTube channel, suggesting that AJ did all the heavy lifting during the fight.
 
“Honest thoughts on the fight. I feel like AJ carried Jake Paul to the sixth round. I know what my eyes see, and I understand fighting. But this is, I guess, the best result, or the most realistic result, I guess. But I know what my eyes were seeing in the early rounds, and now we’re here. Oh well, they made money, everyone is happy.”
 
In response to assessments and news reports in the same vein as Adesanya’s, Most Valuable Promotions’ co-founder, Nakisa Bidarian, appeared on the Ariel Helwani Show to reinforce Paul’s statement of intent regarding taking action against his critics.
 
In the context of the AJ fight, Bidarian revealed that Paul’s lawyers were ready to file a lawsuit against anyone who suggested that the British heavyweight took it easy on Paul during their Netflix-streamed bout.
 
“Our lawyers are actively going after a number of people, one who claims to be a lawyer himself online,” revealed Bidarian.
  
“It was a post that had around 200k likes. Basically, the post claimed there was an agreement for AJ not to knockout Jake, but AJ disregarded the agreement and decided to forego his payday to knock out Jake Paul. So, it’s pretty, pretty astonishing what people will say.”
 
When questioned further by Helwani, Bidarian adamantly denied that there was any pre-fight agreement to go a certain number of rounds or that there was a “script” between the fighters.
 
“It’s just beyond mind-blowing people would think that. Anthony Joshua was on record saying if he didn’t finish in the first round he’ll be disappointed.”
  
Meanwhile, Joshua is poised to relinquish a considerable share of his earnings. As a UK resident, the Watford-born fighter must fulfil tax requirements to both American and British tax authorities.
 
According to AceOdds, 37 per cent of his prize money, which is approximately £25.6m, will go directly to the IRS. Florida has no state tax, but Joshua still faces US income tax at the highest rate.
 
He must also settle the difference between his total UK tax liability and the US tax already paid, which amounts to roughly £5.5m owed to HMRC. An additional £1.4m must be paid for National Insurance contributions, bringing Joshua’s total tax bill to a whopping £32m.