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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the force of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this rubbish," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So this is how it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine professional fighter, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul could not get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for Joshua

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

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any longer, and resorting to slipping to the deck as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had looked like a mournful imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Comments

"That was not the best display," Joshua conceded. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, corner him and hurt him. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the straight right finally reached its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he offered an excuse for his own labored performance. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning 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 cheerful Joshua tried out a poor impression of his domestic rival as he demanded a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed fewer than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a suitably wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul appeared genuinely proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red.

That jokey reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul expelled a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another grim summary of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with gory bullshit and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this sport and I'm going to return and continue winning."