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Jake Paul's mouth gaped wide open, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief following a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact registered to his rattled senses.

"Those watching didn't spend money to see this crap," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair far more succinctly than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or cling to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the serious reality of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was lost in an completely stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean punch meant Paul would not be able to get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the charade to a halt. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a dull ache radiated through his jaw, Paul at last understood how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and deadly execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for nearly five rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, dictated the result. Lacking the stamina to flee any longer, and reduced to falling to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the vicious finish, but, until then, he had looked like a mournful imitation of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"It wasn't the finest performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, pin him down and hurt him. That has been the request, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a bit longer than expected, but the straight right eventually found its target."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he offered an excuse for his own labored showing. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his previous defeat. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a jovial Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he called for a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed less than half the number of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Reaction

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed truly proud and cocky to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the two fractures highlighted in crimson.

That lighthearted reference to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded force, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity remains unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul expelled a streak of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak symbol of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever step in the ring. I love this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."