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

"The fans didn't pay to see this garbage," snapped the referee, encapsulating the sorry spectacle much more effectively than anyone else could.

Trapped in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the punch that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an completely stunned moment.

So this is how it is like, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean punch meant Paul could not rise and taunt his opponent before the referee called the contest to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a dull ache radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a decent level of competition.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he made a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered defenseless by fatigue. Joshua applied the brutal finish, but, until then, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal 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 anticipated, but the straight right eventually reached its destination."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he offered an excuse for his own labored showing. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful impression of Tyson Fury as he called for a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the peak.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain the Ukrainian master and the British prospect. Usyk is still the unquestioned ruler of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight likely have required less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

Paul's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public desires, and that certainly means additional pitiful crossover fights. Paul appeared genuinely proud and brash to have had his jaw broken by a hammer-like right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the pair of breaks highlighted in crimson.

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

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mixed blunt truth with gory bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to return and keep on winning."