🔗 Share this article

Jake Paul's mouth gaped wide open, his expression turning to wide, stunned circles as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe following a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Wow!" as the force of the blow sank in to his scrambled senses.

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

Trapped 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 attempted to withstand the shot that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, 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 knocked down, but the consequences of a proper punch ensured Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the charade over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a dull ache radiated through his jaw, Paul at last understood how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

A Far From Commanding Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the fight. Rather than exuding intimidation or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared hesitant and crude for nearly five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to escape any longer, and resorting to falling to the deck as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was left helpless by fatigue. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had looked like a sad shadow of the fighter he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Comments

"That was not the best display," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to get Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. That has been the request, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a little more time than expected, but the right hand eventually reached its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own stilted showing. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his last loss. "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 cheerful Joshua tried out a poor impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that bout comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned ruler of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The young British heavyweight likely have required less than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to send Paul into a appropriately wowed state.

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 jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a equally faded presence, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is unbroken. It may 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 streak of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."