Jake Paul says he expects to be cleared to spar in a couple of weeks after breaking his jaw in his loss to Anthony Joshua. The update puts a near-term return window on a recovery that now shapes his next boxing and MMA decisions.
Pat McAfee timeline
“I’m going to get cleared officially to spar in the next couple of weeks,” Paul told Pat McAfee. He added, “I’m getting back to it, keep on fighting. Maybe do some MMA.”
That timeline is the first concrete marker since the sixth-round knockout against Joshua, and it gives a practical sense of when he can restart live work rather than just training around the injury. For a fighter building future bookings, sparring clearance is the gate that comes before any serious matchup talk can harden into a camp.
Floyd Mayweather, Nate Diaz
Paul also said, “He needs the money,” when asked about Floyd Mayweather, while making clear he is still open to both boxing and MMA. He said, “I want to do MMA,” and framed Nate Diaz as a lingering option: “We’ve been trying to make the Nate Diaz MMA fight happen for a long time. I think it’s still on the table. So we’ll see what happens in the next year or two.”
That leaves his next move split between two lanes. One points back to boxing, where he said he probably will not fight Olympic gold medal heavyweights anymore: “[The jaw] heals back stronger. I just probably won’t fight Olympic gold medal heavyweights anymore. I learned my lesson.”
Anthony Joshua lesson
Last year, Paul was originally scheduled to face Gervonta Davis before fighting Joshua instead, and he said of that loss, “Definitely still fighting.” He also said his team is talking to a lot of people and figuring out when to come back, which keeps the next opponent list open even as the injury clock starts to narrow.
In May, MVP MMA staged its debut card on Netflix with Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano in the main event, a reminder that crossover bookings still have a market. Paul’s own path now runs through the jaw check first; after that, the real question is which lane gets priority, and whether Nate Diaz in MMA or a boxing name gets the first call.
