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Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the mat in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was attempting to utter "Wow!" as the force of the impact registered to his rattled senses.

"The audience didn't pay to see this crap," snapped the referee, encapsulating the dismal affair far more succinctly than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a neutral 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 the sweet science became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and looks, to be hit hard by a genuine professional fighter, 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 consequences of a proper power shot meant Paul could not 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 radiated through his jawbone, Paul at last understood how difficult, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a decent standard of competition.

A Far From Impressive 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 suggested a precise and lethal execution when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any more, and resorting to slipping to the canvas as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal finish, but, up to that point, he had looked like a sad imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Assessment

"That was not the finest display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, pin him down and do damage. That has been the request, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his last loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026."

What Comes Next: Past Their Prime and New Talent

In the post-fight interview afterwards, a cheerful Joshua attempted a woeful impression of Tyson Fury as he demanded a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that bout comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters 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 king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua required to send Paul into a appropriately wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Reaction

But the public gets what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior fighter than Joshua but a equally diminished force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity is unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make more than $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and continue winning."