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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was attempting to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this rubbish," said the referee, encapsulating the dismal affair far more succinctly than any observer else could.

Trapped 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 tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was lost in an completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real professional fighter, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is certainly the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean power shot meant Paul could not rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the official waved the contest over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul finally grasped how hard, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Impressive Victory for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive during the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he made a cut-throat motion that hinted at a clinical and lethal finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the contest. Instead of exuding intimidation or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated 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 delivered the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had looked like a mournful shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Aftermath Comments

"It wasn't the best display," 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 thoughts. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the right hand eventually reached its destination."

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

The Future: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The young British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a appropriately astonished state.

Paul's Unbowed Reaction

But the public gets what the public desires, and that certainly means more pitiful crossover contests. Paul appeared truly proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in red.

That lighthearted reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished force, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate another opponent with whom he can make more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak summary of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with gory bullshit and stated: "I think 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."