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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped agape, his expression turning to wide, stunned circles as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this crap," said the referee, encapsulating the dismal spectacle much more effectively than any observer else managed to.

Trapped in a neutral 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 the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an completely stunned moment.

So that is what it is like, and appears, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" 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 punch meant Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul finally grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

A Far From Impressive Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and deadly finish 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 seemed hesitant and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and resorting to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and hurt him. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my mind. It took a little more time than expected, but the right hand eventually found its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own stilted performance. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his last defeat. "We shook off the rust, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the post-fight interview that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the undoubted king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required less than half the number of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means additional pitiful celebrity contests. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and cocky to have had his jaw broken by a hammer-like right. In the wee hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity is undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another bleak symbol of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I love this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."