Jake Paul made the call, and Anthony Joshua has apparently answered.

Now, Paul and Joshua are slated to square off in a professional heavyweight fight on December 19 in Miami on Netflix, The Ring’s Mike Coppinger reported on Thursday.

The former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua is supposed to step in to replace WBA lightweight titleholder Gervonta Davis, who was originally set to meet Paul in an exhibition on Friday. But the event was canceled on November 3 after Davis faced a new round of domestic violence allegations.

Joshua was already quietly preparing for his imminent return date for a tune-up tilt against Cassius Chaney, according to Chaney's coach Kenny Ellis. But now, Joshua will instead pursue a much more lucrative purse on his path to a potential fight with Tyson Fury.

Matchroom Boxing head and Joshua’s career-long promoter Eddie Hearn elaborated on how the improbable matchup came to be.

"AJ wanted to go through the motions, wrap his hands, and just gear up [for a tune-up fight against Chaney and] for what is in the works with Turki Alalshikh, which is two fights in 2026. That includes Tyson Fury, that's the plan for Turki Alalshikh," Hearn told talkSPORT.

“We then received a phone call from [Most Valuable Promotions CEO] Nakisa Bidarian, who we had spoken to a few months before, talking about the fight. He said, 'Listen, would you like to fight Jake Paul?' I said, 'I don't want to be a publicity muppet for you, so you can tell everybody that you offered the fight. If you are serious, we can discuss the numbers.'

“If there is a chance for us to run out in December, take care of this bloke [Paul] and get him out of the boxing world while making several tens of millions in the process, then of course we will consider it.

"It's difficult to have this conversation, and sometimes you just have to be as honest as possible. Should Jake Paul be fighting Anthony Joshua? No. Is he mad to do it? Yes. Is there tens of millions of dollars for Anthony Joshua to have an eight-round runout against Jake Paul? Yes. At the moment, there is work to be done. But could it happen? Yes, it could."

Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) hasn’t fought since September 2024, when he suffered a devastating fifth-round knockout loss against Daniel Dubois. Joshua was riding a four-fight winning streak prior to the defeat, and he’ll look to get back into the win column against Paul to better lure Fury for an all-British battle.

Paul (12-1, 7 KOs), meanwhile, must now transition from training for an exhibition against an undersized lightweight to a real fight against one of the era's best heavyweights.