🔗 Share this article Joshua and Paul Produce a Regrettable Display and the Most Troubling Part is There's More to Come Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from the former champion. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the force of the impact registered to his scrambled senses. "The audience didn't pay to see this rubbish," snapped the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than any observer else could. Pinned in a neutral 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 attempted to withstand the punch that broke his jaw in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment. So this is how it is like, and appears, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Wow" is certainly the appropriate term. It was the fourth time the social media star had been knocked down, but the result of a clean punch meant Paul would not be able to rise and waggle his tongue defiantly before the official waved the contest over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul finally understood how difficult, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a decent standard of competition. A Far From Commanding Win for Joshua Joshua, it must be noted, was not impressive amid the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and deadly finish when, in reality, Joshua had appeared exasperated for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed hesitant and awkward for nearly five stanzas. Paul's lack of conditioning, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the result. Without the gas to flee any more, and reduced to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered defenseless by exhaustion. Joshua delivered the brutal ending, but, until then, he had looked like a sad shadow of the fighter he was in 2017. The Winner's Aftermath Comments "That was not the best performance," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, pin him down 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 straight right finally found its target." Joshua praised Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He faced a real fighter tonight that's had a 15-month hiatus," Joshua said, referencing his previous defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to head into 2026." What Comes Next: Faded Forces and New Talent In the post-fight interview that followed, a jovial Joshua attempted a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that bout comes much 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 are Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk remains the unquestioned king of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight likely have required less than half the number of rounds that Joshua required to knock Paul into a appropriately astonished state. Paul's Defiant Response But the public gets what the public wants, and that certainly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed truly proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of the next day, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks highlighted in red. That lighthearted nod to the Mexican superstar, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally faded force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity is unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate someone else with whom he can earn more than $50 million. During his in-ring interview, before leaving for the hospital, Paul expelled a tracer of blood onto the ring floor. It was another bleak summary of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with gory bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."