Eddie Hearn insists that Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua aren’t as far along in negotiations as reports suggest.An article published by Ring Magazine yesterday declared that both parties are ‘finalising terms’ for a heavyweight clash in Miami in December. It comes after Paul pulled the plug on his proposed exhibition bout with Gervonta Davis in November following a series of harrowing accusations from the WBA lightweight champion’s ex-girlfriend, including battery and kidnapping.Following the collapse, Paul’s business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, reached out to Hearn about the possibility of staging a Netflix showdown with AJ.While conversations between MVP and Matchroom are definitely real, Hearn told talkSPORT on Thursday that there is still work to be done.What did Eddie Hearn say about Anthony Joshua vs Jake Paul?“The gun was jumped a little bit and fired early [with the reports],” said the British boxing promoter during an appearance on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan.“There have been conversations. For us, we were flirting with the idea of having a little eight-round fight this year, not with Jake Paul, because he was fighting Gervonta Davis.“But we were going to go on another card somewhere, you wouldn’t really have heard of the opponent we were going to fight.“AJ wanted to go through the motions, wrap the hands and just gear up for what is in the works with Turki Alalshikh, which is two fights in 2026.“That includes Tyson Fury; that is the plan for Turki Alalshikh“We then received a phone call from Nakisa Bidarian, who we had spoken to a few months before, talking about the fight.“And he said, ‘Listen, would you like to fight Jake Paul?’Serious allegations made against Davis [left] led to Paul cancelling their fightGetty“I said, ‘I don’t want to be a publicity muppet for you, so you can tell everybody that you offered the fight to Anthony Joshua.“‘If you are serious, we can discuss the numbers’, and if there is a chance for us to run out in December and take care of this bloke and get him out of the boxing world while making several 10s 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.“We aren’t [definitely] doing it, we are considering it. At the moment, there is work to be done. But could it happen? Yes, it could.”Reports emerged claiming Joshua and Paul are ‘finalising terms’ for a fightGettyHearn insists work still needs to be done for Joshua vs Paul to get over the lineGettyAnthony Joshua has a three-fight plan Joshua hasn’t set foot in the ring since September 2024, when he suffered a brutal knockout loss at the hands of Daniel Dubois.Hearn is weighing up a December run-out for the Watford powerhouse before a quick turnaround in Africa in February.Providing everything goes to plan then Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh intends to stage the long-awaited all-British showdown with Tyson Fury next summer.Whether Paul will fit into that three-fight plan depends on how talks progress over the coming days.