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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Wow!" as the severity of the blow registered to his rattled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this crap," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was lost in an completely stunned moment.

So that is what it feels, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a genuine professional fighter, 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 result of a proper punch meant Paul could not get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul finally grasped how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable level of competition.

A Far From Impressive Victory for the Victor

Joshua, it should be stressed, was not impressive during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed 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. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed hesitant and crude for almost five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and reduced to slipping to the canvas as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, until then, he had looked like a mournful shadow of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the finest display," Joshua conceded. "The end goal was to catch 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 anticipated, but the straight right finally found its destination."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he offered an excuse for his own stilted showing. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his previous loss. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the post-fight interview that followed, a cheerful Joshua attempted a woeful impression of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the far side of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned ruler of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Reaction

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul appeared genuinely proud and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity remains undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the hospital, Paul expelled a streak of blood onto the ring floor. It was another bleak summary of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."