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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this crap," snapped the referee, encapsulating the sorry spectacle much more succinctly than any observer else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or hold on 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 completely stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and looks, to be hit hard by a real professional fighter, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a proper power shot meant Paul would not be able to get up and taunt his opponent before the official called the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul finally understood how hard, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

A Far From Impressive Victory for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the chaos. After his hollow victory, he made a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal execution when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for the majority of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared hesitant and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any longer, and resorting to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the vicious finish, but, until then, he had looked like a sad imitation of the fighter he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Comments

"That was not the best display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to catch Jake Paul, pin him down and do damage. That has been the request, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a bit longer than expected, but the straight right eventually found its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he added an explanation for his own stilted performance. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his previous defeat. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk remains the undoubted ruler of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The youthful British heavyweight likely have required less than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to send Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

Paul's Unbowed Reaction

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul seemed genuinely proud and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a hammer-like right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the two fractures marked in red.

That lighthearted nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains unbroken. 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 medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak summary of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."