Jake Paul loses his controversial world ranking after knockout defeat to Anthony Joshua

Jake Paul is out of the WBA world rankings after suffering the first stoppage defeat of his career last month.

The YouTuber-turned-boxer was knocked out by Anthony Joshua in Miami and required surgery for a broken jaw as a result. He moved up in weight for the Netflix super-fight, and was already on thin ice after appeals to have his ranking slot taken away.

Paul will now have to re-establish himself in the rankings, with his next fight far from being discussed as he recovers from surgery. He did mention that his plan was to win two fights next year, but that remains to be seen.

Jake Paul removed from WBA rankings after Anthony Joshua KO

It was always going to be an uphill battle for Jake Paul to maintain his spot in the WBA’s top 15 at cruiserweight, particularly given he was closing out 2025 in a different division regardless. He had initially been booked to face Gervonta Davis in an exhibition bout that was essentially openweight.

Then when that fight fell through, he moved up to heavyweight for the second time in his career to take on two-time unified world champion Joshua. As a result, his eligibility will have been questioned given that two of his last three bouts were outside of the division.

He initially earned his ranking by winning a lopsided decision against former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr back in June. This was a wildly controversial take, and the decision to rank him was appealed at the WBA’s European conference and ultimately upheld.

Paul has yet to comment on his exclusion from the rankings, where he was replaced by Liam Callanan and Edin Puhalo. He had started out ranked number 14, before moving down last month to number 15 and now showing as not ranked.

He had ambitions of pursuing a world title at cruiserweight after the Joshua fight, and even faced off with WBA champion Zurdo Ramirez after they shared the card in California back in June. But he will now need another fight to establish himself again and be in contention.

Jake Paul’s team had petitioned for WBO ranking spot prior to Anthony Joshua KO

There had been plans for Paul to perhaps get himself ranked with the WBO, whose belt is also held by Ramirez. His team had petitioned for a spot prior to what was then the Davis bout, although it didn’t work out.

At the WBO congress in October, Most Valuable Promotions’ Mike Leanardi asked the WBO to consider ranking Jake Paul at cruiserweight. He told them at the time that Paul was planning to return to fighting professional bouts at 200b in the Spring of this year.

That seems particularly unlikely now given his recovery timeline.