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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to say "Whoa!" as the force of the impact registered to his rattled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this rubbish," snapped the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair much more succinctly than any observer else managed to.

Trapped in a neutral corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the punch that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was lost in an completely dazed moment.

So that is what it is like, and looks, to be hit hard by a genuine boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the consequences of a clean power shot meant Paul could not get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the charade to a halt. As blood began to trickle from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul at last grasped how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of professionalism.

A Far From Commanding Victory for the Victor

Joshua, it must be noted, was not impressive during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the contest. Rather than exuding intimidation or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed hesitant and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and reduced to falling to the deck as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered defenseless by fatigue. Joshua applied the brutal finish, but, until then, he had looked like a sad imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"It wasn't the finest performance," Joshua conceded. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. That has been the request, and that's what was on my mind. It took a little more time than expected, but the right hand finally found its target."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he offered an excuse for his own stilted performance. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his last loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a cheerful Joshua tried out a poor impression of his domestic rival as he called for a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In contrast, the most interesting big men in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The young British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Reaction

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more low-quality crossover fights. Paul seemed truly satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he shared an radiograph, with the two fractures marked in crimson.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly faded presence, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another grim summary of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with gory bravado and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."