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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in shock and awe following a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this crap," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry spectacle much more succinctly than anyone else managed to.

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 became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it is like, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a real boxer, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the result of a proper power shot meant Paul could not get up and taunt his opponent before the official called the charade to a halt. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last grasped how hard, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing amid the bedlam. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that hinted at a precise and lethal finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed hesitant and crude for nearly five rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the result. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to falling to the canvas as often as he could for a breather, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. 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 found its destination."

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

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful imitation of his domestic rival as he called for a fight against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the downward slope of the peak.

In contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted ruler of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The youthful British heavyweight likely have required fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a appropriately astonished stupor.

Paul's Unbowed Reaction

But the fans gets what the public desires, and that certainly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed truly satisfied and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he posted an radiograph, with the two fractures highlighted in red.

That jokey reference to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded force, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon find another opponent with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another grim symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."