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Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers 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 "Whoa!" as the severity of the blow registered to his rattled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this crap," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than any observer else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or cling to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

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

It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a proper power shot meant Paul could not rise and taunt his opponent before the official waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last understood how hard, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing amid the chaos. After his hollow victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and deadly finish when, in truth, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the contest. Instead of exuding intimidation or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed hesitant and crude for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Without the gas to escape any longer, and reduced to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua applied the vicious finish, but, until then, he had seemed a sad shadow of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the finest performance," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and do damage. That has been the plan, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a little more time than anticipated, but the right hand finally reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own stilted performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his last defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua attempted a woeful impression of his domestic rival as he called for a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the far side of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rising force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required less than half the number of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a appropriately astonished state.

Paul's Defiant Response

But the fans gets what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means more low-quality celebrity contests. Paul appeared genuinely proud and brash to have had his jaw broken by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the two fractures highlighted in red.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater fighter than Joshua but a similarly diminished force, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the medical facility, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mixed blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever do it. I adore this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."