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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a devastating right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this rubbish," said the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Trapped in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly stunned moment.

So that is what it is like, and looks, to be hit hard by a genuine boxer, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the contest over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a dull ache spread through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Commanding Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that hinted at a clinical and deadly finish when, in truth, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and crude for almost five rounds.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the result. Without the gas to escape any longer, and resorting to falling to the deck as frequently as he could for a breather, Paul was left helpless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad shadow of the fighter he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Post-Fight Assessment

"That was not the finest performance," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. That has been the plan, 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 commended Paul's bravery but he added an explanation for his own stilted performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his last defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the post-fight interview that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a poor impression of Tyson Fury as he demanded a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the far side of the peak.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk is still the undoubted king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a suitably wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed genuinely proud and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an radiograph, with the two fractures highlighted in red.

That lighthearted reference to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior fighter than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more grim summary of the evening as Paul mangled harsh reality with gory bravado and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the greatest to ever do it. I love this sport and I'm going to return and continue winning."