Paul has been banging on about levels for years now and the funny part is he has been right every single time. He said Nate Diaz was a level below and knocked him out. He said Anderson Silva was past it and dropped him.
He said Mike Tyson at fifty-eight was still a level above most and still beat the brakes off him for eight rounds. Every fighter who laughed at the word “levels” ended up eating canvas or hearing ten bells.
December 19th in Florida is just the final year of the course and Joshua is the tired old professor who never updated the syllabus.
Paul is twenty-eight with ten wins, nine stoppages and a chin that has never been cracked clean by anyone with a pulse.
Jake Paul keeps talking about “levels”—Joshua could be about to fail the entrance exam
Joshua is thirty-five with four losses, two of them back-to-back schooling sessions from a cruiserweight and one cold nap courtesy of Andy Ruiz. Those are the levels right there in black and white. One man is climbing. The other is sliding and clutching at old highlight reels from 2017 like they still matter.
Joshua talks about giving Paul a PhD in levels like he is still the man who starched Klitschko. That man vanished somewhere around the second Usyk fight.
The Joshua showing up on Netflix is the one who got outboxed by Wallin for five rounds until the corner pulled the plug and the one who needed a gift knockdown against a debut Ngannou to save face. That is not a professor. That is a supply teacher praying the kids do not notice the lesson plan is ten years out of date.
Paul keeps saying Joshua is on the downhill and the tape backs him up. The legs go after four rounds now. The punch output drops. The eyes look for the corner instead of the knockout. Paul has trained his whole camp to drag Joshua past round six because that is where the old heavyweight magic dies. Levels are not talk. Levels are stamina, timing, accuracy and the ability to take a shot when you are tired. Paul has shown all of it. Joshua has not shown it since before the pandemic.
On December 19th Paul does not need to prove anything new. He just needs to keep doing what he has done to every name on his record. Walk forward, throw combinations, make the older man work.
By round seven Joshua will be breathing through his mouth and looking for a place to hold. That is when the PhD gets handed out and the diploma reads “retirement recommendation accepted.”
Paul has been writing the curriculum for years. Joshua is the last stubborn student who thinks the old textbook still counts. The bell rings in Florida and the grading starts. Fail the cardio test, fail the chin test, fail the levels test and the professor gets expelled. Paul already passed with honours.
Joshua is about to find out the hard way that the kid he keeps calling a YouTuber is the one holding the red pen now.
Jake Paul represents much of what Joshua was taught to reject — let’s see how he does with him.
