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Jake Paul's jaw dropped wide open, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe following a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this crap," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more succinctly than any observer else managed to.

Trapped in a neutral corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and appears, 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 social media star had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean power shot ensured Paul could not get up and taunt his opponent before the referee called the charade to a halt. As blood began to trickle from his mouth, and a dull ache spread through his jaw, Paul at last understood how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Impressive Victory for the Victor

Joshua, it must be noted, was not impressive during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that hinted at a precise and lethal finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the fight. Instead of exuding intimidation or displaying an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had appeared tentative and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, shaped the result. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to falling to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the vicious ending, but, until then, he had looked like a sad shadow of the fighter he was in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"It wasn't the best display," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my mind. It took a bit longer than expected, but the straight right eventually reached its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own stilted showing. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his last loss. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rising force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul seemed truly proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey reference to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally faded presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate another opponent with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was another grim symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and continue winning."