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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped agape, his expression turning to wide, stunned circles as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was attempting to utter "Whoa!" as the force 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 much more succinctly than any observer else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not retreat or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine 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 consequences of a clean punch ensured Paul would not be able to 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 at last grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

A Far From Impressive Victory for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the chaos. After his hollow victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal execution when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Instead of glowering with menace or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for nearly five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Lacking the stamina to flee any more, and reduced to falling to the canvas as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious finish, but, until then, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the finest 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 thoughts. It took a little more time than anticipated, but the right hand eventually reached its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he added an explanation for his own labored performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, referencing his last defeat. "We shook off the rust, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference afterwards, a jovial Joshua tried out a poor impression of his domestic rival as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned ruler of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a suitably wowed stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the public receives what the public wants, and that certainly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul appeared truly satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in crimson.

That jokey reference to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a similarly faded presence, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity is undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another grim symbol of the evening as Paul mixed blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and continue winning."