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Jake Paul's mouth gaped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact registered to his scrambled senses.

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

Pinned 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 the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and looks, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly 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 to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of professionalism.

A Far From Commanding Win for the Victor

Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive amid the chaos. After his empty victory, he made a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a clinical and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the contest. Instead of 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 basic essential in top-level boxing, shaped the result. Lacking the stamina to flee any longer, and reduced to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was left helpless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the fighter he was in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch 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 straight right eventually found its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own stilted showing. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his last defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and New Talent

In the post-fight interview that followed, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the downward slope of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned king of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury twice. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

Paul's Defiant Reaction

But the fans receives what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality crossover contests. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and cocky to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red.

That lighthearted nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find another opponent with whom he can make more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another bleak summary of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with gory bullshit and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to return and keep on winning."