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Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief after a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was attempting to say "Wow!" as the force of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

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

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the punch that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an utterly stunned moment.

So that is what it is like, 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 former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the result of a clean power shot ensured Paul could not rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the contest over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul at last grasped how hard, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a decent level of competition.

A Far From Impressive Victory for Joshua

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 lethal finish when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for nearly five rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and reduced to falling to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left helpless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the brutal finish, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad imitation of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the finest display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal 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 bit longer than expected, but the right hand eventually reached its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an explanation for his own labored showing. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of his domestic rival as he called for a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their careers. 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 remains the unquestioned ruler of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to send Paul into a suitably astonished state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that certainly means additional low-quality crossover fights. Paul appeared truly satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he shared an radiograph, with the two fractures highlighted in red.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished presence, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."