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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's mouth gaped wide open, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the mat in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to say "Wow!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this crap," said the referee, encapsulating the dismal affair far more succinctly than anyone else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the word.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul could not rise and taunt his opponent before the official called the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb spread through his jaw, Paul at last grasped how hard, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a decent standard of competition.

A Far From Impressive Win for Joshua

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 reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the fight. Rather than exuding intimidation or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Without the gas to escape any longer, and reduced to falling to the canvas as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left helpless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the vicious finish, but, up to that point, he had looked like a sad shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Aftermath Comments

"That was not the finest performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and hurt him. That has been the request, and that's what was on my mind. It took a bit longer than expected, but the straight right finally reached its destination."

Joshua praised 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 hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his previous defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Past Their Prime and New Talent

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor impression of his domestic rival as he demanded a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that bout comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the far side of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The young British heavyweight likely have required less than half the number of rounds that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more pitiful crossover fights. Paul appeared genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That lighthearted reference to the Mexican superstar, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon find someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mangled harsh reality with gory bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."