On paper, it looks like fantasy matchmaking. You know, for those whose fantasies tend toward bloodthirsty sadism.

Jake Paul is finally going to fight a legit top heavyweight — one from the sport of boxing, no less. And of the people he could have chosen, he went with Anthony Joshua. As in, the former heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist with 25 knockouts on his record. A man who, at 6-feet 6 inches and roughly 250 pounds, will tower over Paul the same way Paul towered over Gervonta Davis (before their fight was canceled, much to the dismay of absolutely nobody).

There’s a couple different ways to look at this. One is with a begrudging respect for Paul’s courage. Another is with a deep concern for his well-being, both physically (this is how you end up drinking Christmas dinner through a straw) and mentally (at a certain point, outsized self-confidence becomes a health hazard).

But there’s another angle here that we all might as well go ahead and admit we’re wondering about: Is this whole thing for real? And by that I mean, are Paul and Joshua really going to go in there and do their absolute best to knock one another out? Like, really?

I ask not because I’m trying to accuse Paul of engaging in fixed fights. We all know by now he’s willing to get litigious over that, so let me make it clear: I have no reason to believe this fight is going to be a work.

But I also know that we are living in a new world where sports gambling has extended its spiny tentacles into every aspect of every competition. We have reason to suspect the UFC has recently put on fights where not every participant was trying his very best to win. We’ve seen splashy headlines about NBA players and coaches allegedly supplementing their already healthy incomes with insider info and rigged poker games. Even those of us who don’t think of ourselves as particularly paranoid have more reasons than ever to look at pro sports events and wonder whether some manner of fix is in.

Fight sports have always been especially vulnerable to this. If you want to fix a fight, you only have to pay off one person. But there’s also more than one way to fix a fight. No one needs to fake a knockout or take a dive. Sometimes it can be done via what you might call a gentlemen’s agreement that neither participant will try to take the other’s head off out there.

Remember that fight Paul had with Mike Tyson last year? It was kind of a big deal. Millions watched it on Netflix and many of them expressed frustration and disappointment in the aftermath. Paul won an easy decision, owing mostly to the fact that Tyson is closer to collecting social security than he is to his athletic prime, but he also didn’t seem to really want to hurt Tyson any worse than he needed to. There were moments in that fight where Tyson seemed wobbled and wounded, but Paul didn’t go after him.

Probably that was just Paul not wanting to go full villain mode by potentially hospitalizing an elder on live TV. It could have also been driven by genuine feelings of friendship. Everybody was there to get paid and put on a show, but nobody wanted to see something terrible happen. Or, who knows, maybe Paul was actually concerned that Tyson’s punching power might be the last thing to fade from his body and he was worried “Iron Mike” might be playing possum.

Regardless, a lot of us walked away from that fight feeling like it was something short of the gladiatorial battle “to the death” that we were promised during all the pre-fight hoopla. There, it was forgivable. Tyson was 58 years old, after all.

Mark Robinson via Getty Images

But if people tune in to see Paul battle Joshua next month and see an effort that makes them suspect this is all just a glorified sparring match for a paycheck, I doubt they’ll be quite so understanding. Not these days. Not in our current climate of sports gambling paranoia.

Ask yourself, though, how would I know that I’m seeing a legit boxing match between two professionals trying their best to do their worst to one another? Because in a fight like this, it’s tricky. Joshua seems like he should crush Paul. Just based on everything we’ve seen from both men, this feels like a public execution. That is, in fact, a big part of its appeal. You’re sick of Paul and his sneering Disney-kid-gone-bad routine? Then tune in on Dec. 19 to see him get what’s coming to him. It’s one of the oldest and most reliable sales pitches in all of fight sports.

But what happens if we all go in with that expectation and instead get … almost anything else? Seasoned fans of the fight game know this can always happen. You’re expecting a war and instead you get barely a skirmish. It’s always disappointing, but that’s the chance you take.

What if that happens in Paul vs. Joshua, though? What if we get a lackluster decision? What if Joshua never delivers righteous comeuppance in the form of a blistering right hand? The entire selling point of this fight is that Paul is finally going to bite off more than he can chew and will pay for it in blood and brain cells. So what result other than a clear-cut knockout would an increasingly skeptical public accept?

You have to think both Paul and Joshua know that, right? You also have to think they see what an utter disaster it would be to put on anything other than a 100% genuine fight here. If it’s anything short of that — if people even suspect that one might be carrying the other — their reputations would never recover. They’d do lasting damage not only to their own personal brands, but also the sport of boxing.

They know that, of course. Don’t they? Of course they do. Which is why, when the opportunity presents itself for one to destroy the other, he must hold nothing back. Here’s one fight where violent brutality is not just expected — it might be absolutely required for the good of all.