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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the mat in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was attempting to say "Wow!" as the force of the blow sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this rubbish," said the referee, summing up the dismal affair much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Trapped in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not run 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 lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a real professional fighter, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the consequences of a clean power shot ensured Paul could not get up and taunt his opponent before the official called the charade to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last understood how hard, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the chaos. After his empty victory, he made a throat-slitting gesture that hinted at a clinical and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for the majority of the fight. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Lacking the stamina to escape any longer, and reduced to slipping to the canvas as often as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered helpless by fatigue. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, until then, he had seemed a sad shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the best performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective 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 bit longer than expected, but the straight right eventually reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own labored showing. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, referencing his previous loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of his domestic rival as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that bout comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the number of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Reaction

But the public receives what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means more low-quality crossover contests. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the two fractures marked in red.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon find someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the hospital, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mixed blunt truth with gory bravado and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."