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Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the canvas in stunned disbelief following a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact sank in to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't pay to see this garbage," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not retreat or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the serious reality of boxing became clear. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a real professional fighter, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is certainly the word.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a clean power shot ensured Paul would not be able to rise and taunt his opponent before the referee waved the contest to a halt. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a dull ache radiated through his jawbone, Paul finally understood how hard, exhausting, and perilous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

An Unimpressive Commanding Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it must be noted, was not impressive amid the chaos. After his empty victory, he made a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a clinical and deadly execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to slipping to the canvas as often as he could for a breather, Paul was left defenseless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a mournful shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"That was not the best display," Joshua conceded. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and hurt him. That has been the request, and that's what was on my thoughts. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but the right hand finally found its target."

Joshua praised Paul's courage but he offered an excuse for his own stilted performance. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

The Future: Faded Forces and Rising Stars

In the press conference afterwards, a jovial Joshua tried out a woeful impression 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 hill.

In contrast, the most compelling big men in the world are the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted king of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The young British heavyweight would probably have needed less than half the amount of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a appropriately astonished state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Reaction

But the fans receives what the public desires, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality crossover contests. Paul seemed genuinely satisfied and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the wee hours of the next day, he shared an X-ray, with the two fractures highlighted in crimson.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior fighter than Joshua but a similarly faded force, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah is undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

During his in-ring interview, before departing to the medical facility, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. 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 definitely broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I love this shit and I'm going to return and keep on winning."