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Jake Paul's jaw dropped wide open, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he collapsed to the mat in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact sank in to his rattled senses.

"The audience didn't spend money to see this garbage," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry spectacle far more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Trapped in a neutral corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not run or hold on to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly stunned moment.

So this is how it feels, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a genuine boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is indeed the word.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been knocked down, but the result of a clean power shot ensured Paul could not get up and taunt his opponent before the official called the charade over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jaw, Paul finally understood how hard, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of professionalism.

An Unimpressive Impressive Win for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing amid the chaos. After his empty victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and lethal finish when, in truth, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to falling to the deck as frequently as he could for a rest, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, until then, he had seemed a mournful imitation of the fighter he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Comments

"That was not the finest display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal 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 expected, but the right hand finally found its target."

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 hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his previous loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the press conference afterwards, a jovial Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he called for a scrap against the presently inactive boxer. Joshua will likely get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the peak.

In contrast, the most interesting big men in the world remain the Ukrainian master and the British prospect. Usyk is still the unquestioned king of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. At the same time, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to send Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

The Defeated Fighter's Unbowed Response

But the public receives what the public wants, and that certainly means additional low-quality celebrity contests. Paul seemed truly proud and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he posted an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in red.

That lighthearted nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a similarly diminished presence, demonstrated that Paul's brazen audacity is unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the ring floor. It was another grim summary of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I think my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."