🔗 Share this article

Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the canvas in shock and awe after a devastating right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Wow!" as the severity of the impact registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't pay to see this garbage," snapped the referee, encapsulating the dismal affair much more succinctly than any observer else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing 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 this is how it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic champion 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 clean punch meant Paul could not rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a dull ache radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how hard, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that hinted at a clinical and lethal execution when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated 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 rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and resorting to slipping to the deck as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a mournful imitation of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the finest display," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to get 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 finally reached its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he offered an excuse for his own labored showing. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his last defeat. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

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

In contrast, the most interesting big men in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed less than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to send Paul into a suitably astonished state.

Paul's Unbowed Response

But the public gets what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means more pitiful crossover contests. Paul appeared genuinely proud and cocky to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red.

That lighthearted reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a similarly faded presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another bleak symbol of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with gory bravado and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this sport and I'm going to come back and continue winning."