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The YouTuber-turned-fighter's jaw dropped agape, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was trying to say "Whoa!" as the force of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

"The fans didn't spend money to see this rubbish," said the referee, encapsulating the dismal spectacle far more succinctly than anyone else managed to.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could not run or cling to Joshua's legs in a desperate clinch as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that fractured his mandible in two separate places, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So that is what it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine boxer, an Olympic champion and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the former YouTuber had been sent to the floor, but the result of a clean power shot meant Paul could not rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a numbing throb spread through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how hard, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a decent standard of competition.

A Far From Commanding Victory for the Victor

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and lethal execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed hesitant and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the outcome. Without the gas to flee any longer, and reduced to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was left defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had seemed a sad imitation of the boxer he was in 2017.

Joshua's Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the finest performance," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to get Jake Paul, corner him and hurt him. That has been the request, and that's what was on my mind. It took a little more time than anticipated, but the right hand eventually reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an excuse for his own labored showing. "He faced a genuine competitor tonight that's had a 15-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We dusted off the rust, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

What Comes Next: Past Their Prime and New Talent

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 probably get his wish, but that matchup comes much too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world remain the Ukrainian master and Moses Itauma. Usyk remains the undoubted ruler of the weight class, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The young British heavyweight would probably have needed less than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a appropriately wowed state.

Paul's Defiant Reaction

But the public receives what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional pitiful celebrity fights. Paul appeared genuinely satisfied and brash to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he shared an radiograph, with the two fractures marked in red.

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

During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the hospital, Paul spat a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was another bleak symbol of the evening as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and stated: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper beating from one of the best to ever step in the ring. I love this shit and I'm going to return and keep on winning."