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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped wide open, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow sank in to his scrambled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this crap," said the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else could.

Trapped in a neutral corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the contest to a halt. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a decent level of competition.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a precise and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for the majority of the fight. Instead of glowering with menace or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for nearly five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and resorting to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by fatigue. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, until then, he had looked like a sad imitation of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the best performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective 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 bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally reached its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an explanation 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 defeat. "We shook off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a cheerful Joshua tried out a woeful impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. At the same time, Itauma is a rising talent. The young British heavyweight likely have needed fewer than half the amount of rounds that Joshua required to send Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality celebrity fights. Paul appeared truly satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior fighter than Joshua but a similarly faded force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity remains unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more grim summary of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this sport and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."