FOOTAGE has emerged of Jake Paul dropping a heavyweight in sparring – off the heels of his talks to fight Anthony Joshua.
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul brazenly called out two-time heavyweight champion AJ on his podcast.
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And the two later shared a phone call and struck a shock agreement to fight in 2026.
Amid the unlikely negotiations between the pair, footage uploaded on social media showed Paul dropping a heavyweight sparring partner.
In the short clip, the American floors his sparring partner with an overhand right – leaving fans divided.
One said: “Please put him there with AJ so he can end AJ’s career.”
Another added: “Jake Paul showing his power.”
One argued: “It’s sparring. Happens to and from everyone.”
Another slammed: “Of course he dropped him look where his left hand is at.”
Despite the clip only just resurfacing, it comes from a video uploaded to Paul’s YouTube channel in November before his fight against Mike Tyson.
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And SunSport can reveal the sparring partner in question is DeAndre Savage – who is 10-0 all by knockout.
He is known to fight anywhere around the 265lb-300lb mark (18st 9lb-21st 4lb) and spent a couple weeks in Paul’s Puerto Rico camp last year.
And 34-year-old Savage – who is ranked by the WBA – was forced to admit to being dropped by Paul.
He told Pro Boxing Fans: “Yeah, that was me.
“Jake caught me with a good right hand and I just went down to my knee and got back up. That was it.”
Paul, 28, bulked up to 16st 2lb as a heavyweight for the first time for his controversial fight with Tyson, who came out of retirement aged 58.
He won an eight-round decision with over 100 MILLION watching on Netflix – despite the scrutiny surrounding the age gap.
But Paul was preparing to move back down to the 200lb cruiserweight limit of 14st 4lb to face Canelo Alvarez in his return.
Talks were advanced for a May 3 mega-fight in Las Vegas – until Canelo walked away from the deal to instead sign with Saudi’s Turki Alalshikh.
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So Paul was forced to go back to the drawing board and called out Joshua, 35, who is yet to return since his KO loss to Daniel Dubois, 27, in September.
And Paul’s promotional partner Nakisa Bidarian claimed the fight is “100 per cent realistic” for next year.
Bidarian told SunSport: “Jake realises he needs some more in-ring experience to be in the best position to hold his own against Anthony Joshua.
“So we’re not rushing into a fight against Joshua. We’re not financially dependent on Jake having a fight against Anthony Joshua for 2025 for our business to flourish.
“We’re gonna do at least two Jake Paul fights in 2025, and then we’ll definitely sit down with the appropriate parties to look at Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua in 2026.”
Bidarian revealed Paul is also targeting up to three bouts in 2026.
He said: “We’re actively working on putting together Jake’s fight for this summer. And we’ll announce it as soon as we’re ready.
“And then we’re actively working on figuring out Jake’s next fight – call it October to December time frame.
“So the plan is for Jake to fight twice in 2025 and two to three times in 2026.”
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Content shared from www.the-sun.com.