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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the mat in shock and awe following a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact registered to his rattled senses.

"The fans didn't pay to see this rubbish," said the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else could.

Trapped in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing became clear. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the punch that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

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

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the consequences of a clean power shot meant Paul could not rise and taunt his opponent before the referee called the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul finally understood how difficult, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a decent standard of professionalism.

A Far From Commanding Victory for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it must be noted, was not impressive amid the chaos. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly execution when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed hesitant and crude for almost five rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the result. Without the gas to flee any more, and resorting to slipping to the deck as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, pin him down 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 right hand eventually reached its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own stilted performance. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his last loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most interesting big men in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. At the same time, Itauma is a rising force. The young British heavyweight likely have required fewer than half the number of rounds that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

Paul's Unbowed Reaction

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul appeared truly proud and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks highlighted in crimson.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity is unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find another opponent with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."