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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped wide open, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the canvas in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was attempting to utter "Wow!" as the severity of the blow sank in to his rattled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this crap," said the referee, summing up the dismal affair far more succinctly than any observer else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and appears, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is certainly the appropriate term.

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 called the charade over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a dull ache radiated through his jaw, Paul at last grasped how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Commanding Victory for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive amid the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he made a cut-throat motion that hinted at a precise and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Rather than exuding intimidation or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and crude 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 flee any longer, and reduced to slipping to the canvas as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by fatigue. Joshua applied the vicious finish, but, until then, he had looked like a sad shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"It wasn't the finest display," Joshua conceded. "The objective 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 expected, but the right hand eventually reached its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own stilted performance. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the post-fight interview that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of his domestic rival as he called for a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the downward slope of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world are the Ukrainian master and the British prospect. Usyk remains the unquestioned king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed truly satisfied and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the two fractures highlighted in red.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more grim summary of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."