What was once thought of as a laughable idea could actually happen. Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul could become a reality later this year.

Joshua's promoter and Matchroom Boxing CEO Eddie Hearn recently gave it a 50-50 chance of happening, while Nakisa Bidarian, the CEO of Paul's Most Valuable Promotions, has only added fuel to the fire with his comments about the potential fight.

Joshua's trainer, Ben Davison, would be concerned for Paul if the fight comes to fruition.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" Davison told The Ring's Louis Hart. "I think it's really dangerous. This is a sport that we love, and I think we need to protect that. [Anthony Joshua is] one of the most dangerous guys in the world to step in the ring with.

"We saw that with [Francis] Ngannou. He's one of the most durable men on the planet in one of the toughest sports in combat sports."

Davison compared the potential meeting between Joshua and Paul to the mega fight that was Floyd Mayweather's 10th-round stoppage of Conor McGregor in August 2017.

Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), a former five-division champion and 2021 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, and McGregor, a two-division UFC champion, drew the second-most PPV buys in U.S. boxing history with 4.3 million.

While there are certainly parallels, the difference in the danger Paul would face compared to McGregor is impossible to ignore, given the size difference and the weight class at which he'd be facing Joshua. Mayweather had been retired for well over a year and was physically smaller than McGregor. Their fight was at the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds.

Paul, who stands 6-foot-1, has regularly fought at the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds, with the lone exception being when he weighed 227.2 for his bout against Mike Tyson. Joshua, who is a towering 6-foot-6, has weighed at or over 250 pounds in each of his last five fights.

"It's one of them, but at the same time, it's different with Floyd," Davison said. "He's not like someone like AJ who can take somebody's head off."

Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) fought former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou in March 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and dropped him three times before stopping him in two rounds.

However, the former two-time heavyweight champion was dropped four times and knocked out in the fifth round by former IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois on Sept. 21 at London's Wembley Stadium in his last fight.

Joshua, 35, was on a four-fight win streak heading into his title bout against Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) and has spent the subsequent time rehabbing from several injuries as he prepares for one final run to round out an illustrious career.

Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) meanwhile has won six straight fights since dropping an eight-round split decision to Tommy Fury in February 2023. Paul, 28, defeated long-faded former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by unanimous decision on June 28 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.