It’s a matchup that may seem unlikely —  but in combat sports, money talks. 

Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority whose big bucks has revolutionised boxing in recent years, has spoken up what he hopes might be his latest attraction: Anthony Joshua vs. Jake Paul.

Paul, the upstart boxing neophyte who has proven to be a legitimate box office commodity in the ring, emerged successfully from his latest bout opposite a fighter generally considered to be past his best, the former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., this month, while Joshua was defeated in his mosts recent fight by Daniel Dubois in a bout that appeared to suggest that there was a new balance of power atop the heavyweight fold.

But while few had were desirous of a Joshua-Paul bout, Alalshikh says that it remains a distinct possibility.

“I’m not against him,” he said of Paul to The Boxing Voice podcast, as noted by MMA Fighting. “I am against some kinds of fights he [does]. I want to tell you an example and a surprise. I am thinking me and him to doing him against Joshua now. I want to tell you something, Joshua if he destroys him, it will be good for me. The headache of Jake Paul is finished.

“Let me explain it to you. Joshua against Jake Paul, if Joshua destroys him, the headache of Jake Paul will go from my mind. If Jake Paul win, I will know that Joshua is finished and Jake Paul deserves to be ranked and deserves to have a future in boxing. Right? Jake Paul accepted. Now next week I will talk with Joshua about it.”

Jake Paul, it should be noted, has competed at heavyweight — but that was against a 58-year-old Mike Tyson. He has competed more regularly at cruiserweight. Another stumbling block could come in the shape of Joshua’s British promoter Eddie Hearn, who has had a fractious relationship with Paul in recent years, to the point of their being a lawsuit between the two.

“Our focus is to fight Tyson Fury, but [Joshua] needs a fight before then,” Hearn said to Boxing News. “If that’s Jake Paul, and if you guys want that fight, I know the numbers would be massive, the world would want to see it.”