Jake Paul’s mother, Pam Stepnick, has praised Anthony Joshua for personally apologising to her after his victory over the YouTuber-turned-boxer, a bout that ended with Paul being taken to hospital with a broken jaw.
The British heavyweight approached Stepnick after the fight to explain that what had happened was simply part of boxing, a gesture she later described as showing real class.
Footage from the aftermath shows Joshua making his way through the crowd to speak with Stepnick.
During the brief exchange, he referred to Paul as a “strong guy” and reminded her that he, too, has experienced being knocked down in the ring during his career.
Stepnick later spoke glowingly about the moment on the Impaulsive podcast. “Even Anthony Joshua had some class and apologised to me, essentially,” she said. “He worked his way through the crowd and came up to me and said: ‘Mom, just know it’s just boxing. It’s just the fight game’.”
However, she was far less complimentary about Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn. “As a mom, my aggression comes out too,” she said. “I wanted to get in that ring and punch Eddie Hearn, for instance… because I don’t like his smug face.
“Jake’s over there struggling and he’s sitting over there smiling like the cat who swallowed the canary. Guess what? Did he f***ing get in the ring?”
Paul was left needing surgery on his jaw following the contest, but Stepnick stressed that she harboured no resentment towards Joshua himself. “Jake chose to get into the ring with a humongous guy, that’s on Jake,” she added.
“I believe that Jake really thought he could knock him (Joshua) out so it made me feel very confident and I knew God was in his corner. And he still was, because this could have turned out even worse than it did, so God really was on our shoulders. And to get through the process of getting into the ER, having surgery, out of the ER, discharged to home within 12 hours, thank you to the angels.”
The fight marked Joshua’s first appearance since his defeat to Daniel Dubois in 2024 and took the 36-year-old’s professional record to 29 wins and four losses.
Despite the emphatic victory, Joshua’s new trainer, Iegor Golub, has suggested the former world champion is not yet ready for a potential showdown with Tyson Fury.
