After Joshua, Paul desires bouts vs. Crawford, UFC's Pereira - ESPN

When Jake Paul's fight with Gervonta «Tank» Davis was canceled after the WBA lightweight champion's latest legal issues surfaced, the social media influencer-turned-boxer was determined to secure a new opponent before the end of 2025.

Several potential opponents were reportedly in play, but Paul landed on a fight with former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and the two will meet on Friday at Kaseya Center in Miami, live on Netflix.

«I didn't expect the fight with Joshua to happen this year,» Paul told ESPN about his selection process. «But the plan was always to fight Gervonta Davis and then Anthony Joshua, so we bumped it up ahead of schedule.»

But Paul revealed that he was very close to securing a fight with three-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford instead of Joshua and the only hang-up was aligning their schedules.

«It was very close to being Crawford instead of Joshua,» Paul said. «It really just came down to a timing thing and wanting to market a fight with Crawford properly. Maybe we do it in 2026 and align the schedules because we were very close to making that fight happen. It's a massive fight and when I beat Joshua it will be even bigger.»

Crawford was one of several fighters that Paul told ESPN was on his updated «hit list» of opponents he wants to fight. He posted his first «hit list» on social media in 2021 and, to date, has fought six of his 12 desired opponents. Both Joshua and Crawford are on the updated «hit list» but one other name that was in play for a December fight that was not on his list was former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

An offer was made for Ngannou to face Paul shortly after the fight with Davis fell through. However, Ngannou told TMZ that he declined