Jake Paul was given a black eye in sparring by Lawrence Okolie, he explained in a video.
Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) will step into the ring with Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) on Dec. 19 in an eight-round heavyweight fight in Miami.
He has been preparing by surrounding himself with top sparring partners, including Okolie, Frank Sanchez and Jared Anderson.
They have left their mark by causing bruising underneath Paul’s right eye.
“I’m sparring a bunch of world champion heavyweights,” he told Adin Live’s YouTube channel.
“I think Okolie did that to me. He’s 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds.”
Okolie, Britain’s former world cruiserweight champion, is now making waves in the top division.
He is in action on the same night as Paul vs. Joshua, but in Nigeria, as he steps up his pursuit of a title shot. Okolie (22-1, 16 KOs) has been ordered to fight Moses Itauma in a WBC eliminator that could lead to Oleksandr Usyk’s belt.
Okolie previously told ESPN about his fascination to spar with Paul: “What I don’t [want] to happen to him is he gets absolutely destroyed in a round or whatever if AJ turns it on. I want him to have a decent feeling of what it’s like to be in there with a world-class heavyweight beforehand.
“I have a fight coming up, but I’ll go out for a couple of weeks. I want to know what it is that’s allowed Jake Paul to say to himself: ‘I’m going to get in there with a 250-pound muscle man from England, this big guy, Olympic gold, former two-time heavyweight world champion, in front of millions of fans on Netflix.’
“I need to know. Maybe he’s got a secret that I don’t know.”
Paul shares weight update
Paul has boxed at cruiserweight for the most part, although his meeting with Mike Tyson was in the heavyweight division.
He is staying at heavyweight to fight Joshua but a 245-pound limit has been imposed for the weigh-in.
It will be the first time that Joshua has ever had a weight restriction.
“I am, like, 215 pounds,” Paul said, explaining that he intends to weigh up to five pounds more on fight night.
Paul said about Joshua: “He will be 250 pounds in the ring. It’s definitely a pretty wild fight.”
Joshua, who weighed 253 pounds for his most recent fight a year ago, has already shared that he is on course to meet the 245-pound limit to face Paul.
