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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped wide open, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the force of the blow sank in to his rattled senses.

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

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 the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was lost in an completely dazed moment.

So that is what it is like, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a proper power shot ensured Paul would not be able to rise and taunt his opponent before the referee called the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a dull ache spread through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a decent standard of competition.

A Far From Commanding 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 execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared hesitant and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Without the gas to flee any more, and resorting to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, until then, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the fighter he was in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the finest performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and hurt him. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a little more time than anticipated, but the right hand finally reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own stilted showing. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his last defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the press conference that followed, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor imitation of his domestic rival as he called for a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that bout comes far too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark 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 twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required less than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably astonished state.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Reaction

But the public gets what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means additional pitiful celebrity contests. Paul appeared genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in crimson.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a equally faded force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. 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 departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bullshit and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this sport and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."