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Jake Paul's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the force of the impact registered to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't spend money to see this rubbish," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry spectacle far more succinctly than anyone else could.

Pinned in a neutral 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 serious reality of boxing became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and appears, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean punch ensured Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the charade to a halt. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul at last grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for the Victor

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 precise and lethal finish when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for almost five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the result. Lacking the stamina to flee any more, and resorting to falling to the canvas as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had looked like a mournful shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to get 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 anticipated, but the right hand eventually reached its target."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he added an explanation for his own labored showing. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his last defeat. "We shook off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the post-fight interview that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both men are on the far side of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most interesting big men in the world remain the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The young British heavyweight would probably have needed less than half the amount of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Reaction

But the public gets what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality crossover contests. Paul seemed genuinely proud and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the two fractures highlighted in crimson.

That jokey nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded presence, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity remains unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was another grim summary of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."