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Jake Paul's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles 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 sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't spend money to see this garbage," said the referee, summing up the dismal spectacle far more effectively than anyone else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not run or cling to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly stunned moment.

So that is what 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 sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean punch ensured Paul could not rise and taunt his opponent before the official called the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a dull ache radiated through his jaw, Paul finally understood how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a decent standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the chaos. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and resorting to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, until then, he had looked like a sad imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Assessment

"That was not the finest performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to catch Jake Paul, pin him down and do damage. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a little more time than expected, but the right hand finally found its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his previous defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that bout comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most interesting big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed fewer than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

Paul's Unbowed Response

But the public receives what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means additional pitiful crossover contests. Paul seemed truly proud and brash to have had his jaw broken by a hammer-like right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an X-ray, with the two fractures marked in red.

That jokey reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon find another opponent with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."