Conor McGregor has told Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua their fight should not be happening.

Paul will step up several levels next Friday when he takes on Joshua in Miami in a sanctioned heavyweight contest. The controversial bout has been widely criticised with Joshua forced to deny he has agreed to take it easy on the YouTuber. The pair will clash over 10 rounds with the fight going on their respective records.

And McGregor, who has his own history with Paul having clashed several times previously, admits he will begrudgingly respect the social media star if he makes it to the ring next week.

“If he makes that walk, I’ve got to give him his respect for that,” he told Bloody Elbow. “It’s very dangerous, it seems like Netflix are all over him. It’s a dangerous sport and you can’t overlook that. Joshua is a big boy and above that he is a power house.

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“I’ve been ringside to watch Joshua and that is a heavy punching man,” he continued. “And he’s a happy and good person, but he has an anger in him, he has a darkness, does Anthony Joshua. I don’t think a lot of people suss that. So the fight shouldn’t go ahead, but if he does it then I will have to give Jake his respect for that.”

Joshua is expected to dispatch Paul inside six minutes and his promoter Eddie Hearn has admitted boxing would effectively be over if the Brit were to lose. "He is a top 50, in the world, cruiserweight," Hearn said of Paul to Sky Sports. "He is a legitimate cruiserweight now. I just don't think he's world class and I don't think there's any non-world class cruiserweight that can step up to heavyweight and beat Anthony Joshua.

"Maybe I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I think my time's up. Not just AJ and me retire, I think we should all retire. So AJ the weight of boxing is on your shoulders, my man! I really believe this is going to be a straightforward obliteration. This is a real fight. This is a sanctioned contest. It is completely illegal to have any kind of agreement of how the fight would play out.

"Fair play to Jake Paul. He's signed up for a real fight. Within less than a minute of that fight he is going to think to himself: 'What on earth have I done here?' And more importantly: 'What am I going to do?' There is absolutely no escape for Jake Paul in this fight… You will find out very quickly what this game is all about. And it will not be pleasant for you."