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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief following a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the force of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this rubbish," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry spectacle far more effectively than anyone else could.

Pinned in a neutral corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and looks, 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 social media star had been knocked down, but the consequences of a clean punch meant Paul would not be able to get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the charade to a halt. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jaw, Paul at last understood how difficult, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a decent level of professionalism.

A Far From Impressive Win for the Victor

Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly execution when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed tentative and crude for almost five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any longer, and reduced to slipping to the deck as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was left helpless by fatigue. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, until then, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the fighter he was in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the finest display," Joshua conceded. "The objective 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 expected, but the right hand finally reached its target."

Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We dusted off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most interesting big men in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending talent. The young British heavyweight likely have needed less than half the number of rounds that Joshua needed to send Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the fans receives what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality crossover fights. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the two fractures marked in crimson.

That lighthearted nod to the Mexican superstar, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished force, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity remains unbroken. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate another opponent with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was another bleak symbol of the night as Paul mixed blunt truth with gory bullshit and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the best to ever step in the ring. I adore this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."