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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the mat in stunned disbelief following a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow sank in to his rattled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this rubbish," said the referee, summing up the dismal spectacle far more succinctly than anyone else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it is like, and looks, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is certainly the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul would not be able to get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the official waved the charade over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how hard, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of competition.

A Far From Impressive Win for Joshua

Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing during the chaos. After his hollow victory, he made a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the fight. Rather than exuding intimidation or displaying an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed hesitant and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Without the gas to escape any more, and resorting to slipping to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad shadow of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Comments

"It wasn't the finest performance," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and do damage. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a little more time than expected, but the straight right finally reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his previous loss. "We dusted off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In contrast, the most compelling big men in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The young British heavyweight likely have required less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably wowed stupor.

Paul's Defiant Reaction

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more pitiful crossover fights. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a hammer-like right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the two fractures marked in red.

That jokey reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon find another opponent with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another bleak summary of the evening as Paul mangled harsh reality with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."