Anthony Joshua was not Jake Paul’s first-choice opponent

Jake Paul will take on Anthony Joshua next month but had another fighter in his sights before agreeing to face the former heavyweight world champion

Jake Paul was denied the chance to fight Ryan Garcia before turning his attention to Anthony Joshua.

Paul will take on Joshua in Miami on December 19 in what represents a huge step up in opposition for the YouTuber. He has built a modest 12-1 record by predominantly fighting ex-MMA stars and last year outpointed a 58-year-old Mike Tyson. Paul’s only fight against a boxing peer saw him beaten by Tommy Fury two years ago.

Paul was originally due to take on Gervonta Davis earlier this month but the lightweight world champion was accused of kidnapping by an ex-girlfriend and the bout was cancelled. Paul immediately sought a replacement and has settled on Joshua after initially identifying Garcia as the ideal opponent.

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“AJ was on that list, Francis Ngannou, Ryan Garcia, Terecne Crawdord, Conor McGregor, Canelo Alvarez, Tommy Fury…,” Paul’s business partner Nakisa Bidarian told Mirror Fighting. “In terms of what Netflix wanted; AJ, Crawford, Ryan and Manny Pacquiao were acceptable. There were definitely ones we knew would be better in terms of the storyline.

“Manny wasn’t the ideal outcome; he’s just fought Mario Barrios, he showed well and brings an audience from a certain part of the world, so he was on the list but he wasn’t a priority. Ryan Garcia is a great salesman, he’s bigger than Tank, and there has been a lot of back and forth between him and Jake.

“He was probably No.1 from my perspective because he is a safer play in a quick turn over an AJ or over a Crawford. Those three were the ones we spent the most time talking about.”

Both Garcia and Joshua are exclusive to streaming service DAZN but the Brit’s clash with will be shown on Netflix. And Bidarian revealed DAZN were not willing to let Garcia move networks.

“Our provision of services is with Matchroom,” he said. ” We pay Matchroom a sum of money and they present to us that they have obtained the rights to allow AJ to appear on Netflix. We have a great relationship with DAZN; they said no in terms of Ryan Garcia, pretty quickly, but they said yes to AJ.

“My assumption is they believe Jake could beat Ryan Garcia and that wouldn’t have been great for an asset they have in Ryan Garcia. My assumption is they believe AJ is going to kill Jake Paul so they agreed to let it happen.”