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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to say "Wow!" as the force of the impact registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't pay to see this garbage," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than any observer else managed to.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the result of a proper power shot ensured Paul could not get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the official waved the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last grasped how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a decent standard of professionalism.

A Far From Impressive Win for the Victor

Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive during the chaos. After his hollow victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that hinted at a clinical and lethal execution when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for nearly five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, shaped the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any longer, and reduced to slipping to the deck as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious finish, but, until then, he had seemed a sad shadow of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Comments

"That was not the best display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to catch Jake Paul, pin him down and hurt him. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my mind. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the straight right finally found its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he added an explanation for his own labored performance. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, referencing his last loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua attempted a poor impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most interesting big men in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted ruler of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The young British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Reaction

But the fans receives what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality celebrity contests. Paul appeared genuinely proud and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That lighthearted reference to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished presence, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity remains unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find another opponent with whom he can make more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this sport and I'm going to come back and continue winning."