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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Wow!" as the severity of the impact registered to his scrambled senses.

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

Trapped in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could not run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was lost in an utterly stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a real professional fighter, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the consequences of a proper punch 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 understood how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a decent standard of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Impressive Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing amid the chaos. After his hollow victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly execution when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated 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 lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, dictated the result. Without the gas to flee any longer, and resorting to falling to the canvas as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the vicious finish, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad imitation of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Aftermath Assessment

"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 thoughts. It took a little more time than anticipated, but the right hand eventually reached its target."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he offered an explanation for his own stilted showing. "He came up against a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, mentioning his previous loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a cheerful Joshua tried out a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes far too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the peak.

In stark contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the unquestioned ruler of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The youthful British heavyweight likely have needed fewer than half the amount of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a suitably wowed stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the public gets what the public desires, and that certainly means more low-quality crossover contests. Paul appeared truly satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a hammer-like right. In the wee hours of the next day, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey reference to the Mexican superstar, a much superior fighter than Joshua but a equally diminished force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find another opponent with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another grim summary of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this sport and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."