E-Paper
Fact check: Is Jake Paul suing Anthony Joshua for ‘broken jaw’? Truth behind viral claims
Amid ongoing Jake Paul–Anthony Joshua fight controversy, viral claims Paul is suing Joshua over a broken jaw are false, with no lawsuit filed or confirmed.
As the controversy around the fight between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua in September rages on, many unverified claims are circulating on social media.
The fight has been subjected to unverified claims, particularly, around allegations that it was staged or scripted. The controversy has swirled as critics and boxing purists argued the fight shouldn’t have been sanctioned, given Paul’s relative inexperience vs. a former world champion.
Now, social media accounts are claiming that Jake Paul is suing Anthony Joshua for badly injuring his jaw at the fight. Paul, who was a relative mismatch against Joshua's skills and experience, was knocked out in the sixth round with injuries. The accounts claim that Paul is suing the British boxer seeking money for breaking his jaw, but the claims are untrue.
As of now, Jake Paul or his representatives have not sued Anthony Joshua or said anything to that effect. Posts claiming that he did are outright false.
Notably, reports indicate a total purse of about $184 million for the event. It was split roughly evenly, meaning Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua each made around $90–$93 million for the fight.
Also read: Viral video: Andrei Arlovski fights four men in backstage brawl at Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua
MVP Co-Founder Hit Out At Critics
On Monday, December 22, Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of Jake Paul's company, Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), threatened to sue critics who have called the fight staged or fixed. Speaking on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show," Bidarian said that company plans to go after some of the social media handles that spread claims that the fight was staged/ scripted.
"Our lawyers are actively going after a number of people," he said. "One who claims to be a lawyer himself online. I don't remember the name or the handle, but it was something that had like 200,000 likes.
"Basically, this post said there was an agreement for 'AJ' not to knock out Jake, but 'AJ' disregarded the agreement and decided to mitigate his payday but knock out Jake Paul. So it's pretty astonishing what people say."
