Anthony Joshua to lose £32 million prize money after breaking Jake Paul's jaw in brutal KO

Anthony Joshua is thought to be losing £32 million of his prize money following his fight with Jake Paul.

The Brit eventually defeated the YouTuber-turned-boxer in their bout on Friday night (early hours of 20 December UK time) in a jaw-breaking knockout.

AJ has faced a whole load of criticism for taking so long come out as champ in the heavyweight mismatch, as he didn’t take Paul out until the sixth round in Miami.

But, even if he wasn’t impressed by his own performance in the ring, the boxer is still bagging a huge amount of cash for the fight.

With slightly differing reports of just what the prize pot was for the live Netflix event, it’s thought both fighters could be splitting roughly at least £137 million between them.

As a UK resident, though, Joshua is going to have to cough up some of that cash thanks to those good old tax obligations we all get stung by.

AJ eventually won the bout. (Giorgio VIERA / AFP via Getty Images)

There is no state taxation in Florida (where the flight took place), but the Brit still remains subject to US income tax at the maximum rate.

AceOdds explains that a big 37 per cent of his prize money will therefore be going straight to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States. And he then also needs to pay the gap between his complete UK tax obligation and what has already been deducted in US tax.

So, he’ll owe about £5.5 million to HMRC. It doesn’t stop there either, Joshua will, of course, then need to contribute to National Insurance, with roughly an additional £1.4 million of his prize money.

So, in total, he’ll be paying out about £32 million.

This doesn’t seem like it will be that big of a deal to the boxer, though, as he claimed the payday wasn’t his main motivation for taking on Paul.

"It's not even my biggest payday; it's not about money," he said. "For me, it was more about the opportunity. I had to showcase my skills to the world."

They are said to be splitting the prize pot evenly. (Ed Mulholland/Getty Images for Netflix)

Well, he may have ‘showcased’ some skill, but Joshua did admit it wasn’t his ‘best performance’.

“The end goal was to pin Jake Paul down and hurt him,” he said following the fight. “It took a bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally found the destination."

That destination resulted in a broken jaw, as the YouTuber went straight to the hospital after the fight, sharing a bloodied close-up of his wonky mouth in the ring.

He issued an update on Saturday to say he ‘got out of surgery’ and told fans alongside a drowsy-looking snap from a hospital bed: “Everything went smooth. Thanks for all the love. Lots of pain and stiffness. Gotta eat liquids for 7 days.”