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Jake Paul's mouth gaped agape, his eyes becoming huge glazed saucers as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to say "Wow!" as the force of the blow registered to his rattled senses.

"The audience didn't spend money to see this rubbish," said the referee, summing up 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 run or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the serious reality of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he attempted to withstand the shot that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, 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 gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" 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 get up and taunt his opponent before the referee called the charade over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of professionalism.

A Far From Impressive Victory for the Victor

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his hollow victory, he made a throat-slitting gesture that hinted at a precise and deadly execution when, in truth, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the contest. Instead of glowering with menace or displaying an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had appeared tentative and awkward for almost five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, shaped the outcome. Lacking the stamina to flee any longer, and reduced to falling to the deck as often as he could for a breather, Paul was left helpless by fatigue. Joshua delivered the brutal finish, but, until then, he had looked like a sad shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"It wasn't the finest display," Joshua admitted. "The end goal was to catch 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 straight right eventually reached its target."

Joshua commended Paul's courage but he added an explanation for his own stilted performance. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month layoff," Joshua said, referencing his previous loss. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I can't wait to roll into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and New Talent

In the press conference that followed, a jovial Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he called for a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will likely have his way, but that matchup comes much too late in their careers. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most interesting heavyweights in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk is still the unquestioned ruler of the weight class, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have needed fewer than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public receives what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means more low-quality celebrity fights. Paul seemed genuinely proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a hammer-like right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in crimson.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, showed that Paul's comic chutzpah remains unbroken. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate someone else with whom he can make north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before departing to the hospital, Paul spat a tracer of blood onto the canvas. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with gory bravado and stated: "I think my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A nice little beating from one of the best to ever step in the ring. I adore this sport and I'm going to come back and keep on winning."