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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't spend money to see this garbage," snapped the referee, summing up the dismal spectacle much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, 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. "Wow" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the result of a proper punch meant Paul would not be able to rise and taunt his opponent before the referee waved the contest over. As blood began to trickle from his mouth, and a dull ache spread through his jaw, Paul at last understood how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a decent level of competition.

A Far From Impressive Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive amid the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly finish when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for the majority of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for almost five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Lacking the stamina to flee any longer, and resorting to slipping to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the vicious ending, but, until then, he had looked like a mournful shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the best display," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to get Jake Paul, corner him and hurt him. That has been the request, and that's what was on my mind. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the straight right eventually found its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own stilted performance. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of his domestic rival as he demanded a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk is still the undoubted ruler of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rising force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed less than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

Paul's Defiant Response

But the fans gets what the public desires, and that certainly means additional pitiful crossover fights. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a equally diminished force, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever do it. I love this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."