Jake Paul's Jaw Is Finally Cleared — and He's Already Naming 15 Fights

LAS VEGAS — The jaw is fixed. Ten months after Anthony Joshua shattered it in two places on a December night in Miami, Jake Paul has been medically cleared to box again. The announcement came Thursday from MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian on X — and Paul celebrated the only way he knows how, by naming basically everybody.

Let's run the recovery timeline, because it was genuinely scary for a while. December 19: Joshua stops Paul in the sixth round, breaking his jaw twice — the BBC reported the double fracture at the time. Surgery the following day. A second surgery in February. In March, Paul told reporters the doctor needed four to six months just to see if the bone was healing enough to spar, pushing any fight to late 2026 or early 2027, per Reuters. Then in May, he told Ariel Helwani his career might be over — before reversing course days later, saying a doctor had cleared him to spar within two to three months. He told ESPN in April he'd resumed light training but still wasn't cleared for contact.

So Thursday's news is the end of a ten-month medical saga, and Bidarian announced it with the full MVP hype package: "The 'YouTuber' never left boxing. He reinvigorated the sport. Drove new distribution platforms. Broke every record in streaming history. Uplifted the entire sport for women. And did it with no billion dollar backing. Self made. Welcome back @jakepaul."

A few hours later, Paul posted the line that actually tells you where his head is: "Everyone wants the highlight reel. Nobody wants the broken jaw and two surgeries. You don't get one without risking the other."

Then came the list. "Before I rest..." followed by fifteen entries: Canelo Alvarez, Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor (boxing & MMA), Sean Strickland, Darren Till, Ryan Garcia, KSI, Chris Eubank, Edgar Berlanga, Tom Aspinall (boxing), Deontay Wilder, Nate Diaz (MMA), one cryptic line about whoever "ruined our fight," and a world title. "Make it happen @nakisabidarian."

Okay. Let's sort this thing, because a fifteen-name list is a marketing document, not a fight schedule.

The plausible column. Canelo is the eternal white whale — the fight Paul has chased for years, the one that would do massive numbers for both men. Strickland is suddenly the hottest thread in combat sports: the UFC middleweight champion spent this week publicly flirting with a Paul boxing match, and Paul answered him directly on Wednesday. Wilder is the faded-name-with-a-punch playbook Paul knows well. Berlanga and Eubank are real, ranked, UK-and-US-marketable opponents who would test whether Paul is actually a boxer or just an event.

The MMA column. McGregor in "boxing & MMA" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for a guy who hasn't won a fight in years, but the spectacle math is undeniable. Ngannou and Aspinall as boxing opponents are fascinating — two of the heaviest hitters on the planet, in a ring, against a guy coming off a shattered jaw. Diaz in MMA would run through MVP's merger with the PFL, which Paul has said he wants to use for an MMA debut within twelve months, per Boxing Wire. All of these are big swings; none are imminent.

The noise column. KSI is a YouTube-era grudge that would sell but means nothing competitively. Ryan Garcia at 147 pounds against a guy who just fought at heavyweight and says he's going back to cruiserweight is a weight-class fever dream — fun to tweet, impossible to sanction. The cryptic grudge line reads like a shot at a collapsed matchup. And "world title" is the tell: Paul wants the phrase in the conversation, but a real cruiserweight title path means fighting ranked cruiserweights, taking real risks, and climbing actual sanctioning-body ladders. That's a two-year project, not a tweet.

The cruiserweight detail matters more than the list. Paul told reporters in March he's "definitely" going back to cruiserweight after the Joshua experiment: "Joshua's punches hurt way more than people in my weight class. That's where I'm best at, for sure." That's the division where he built the 12-2 record, where his power plays, and where a title path — however long — is at least physically coherent. The heavyweight detour nearly ended his career. He's not doing that again.

What the clearance actually unlocks: real sparring, a real camp, and a real date. Paul said in September he hoped to be back in the ring at the end of this year or early next, with talks underway with a couple of opponents. Boxing Wire notes neither Thursday's post says who cleared him or whether the clearance covers sparring or an actual fight — a fair footnote, but the direction of travel is obvious. The comeback is being built now.

And the timing, whether by design or luck, is perfect content synergy: Paul gets cleared on the same week the UFC's middleweight champion starts publicly campaigning to box him. Strickland's name on the list isn't a coincidence — it's the week's biggest crossover story answering itself in real time.