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Jake Paul's jaw dropped agape, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the canvas in stunned disbelief after a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Wow!" as the severity of the blow registered to his scrambled senses.

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

Trapped in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run 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 completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and appears, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and ex- 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 result of a clean punch meant Paul would not be able to get up and waggle his tongue defiantly before the referee called the contest over. As blood began to leak from his lips, and a numbing throb radiated through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, exhausting, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable standard of competition.

A Far From Commanding Win for the Victor

Joshua, it must be noted, was far from convincing during the chaos. After his hollow victory, he performed a throat-slitting gesture that suggested a precise and deadly finish when, in truth, Joshua had appeared exasperated for the majority of the fight. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed hesitant and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in top-level boxing, dictated the result. Lacking the stamina to escape any longer, and reduced to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by fatigue. Joshua applied the vicious ending, but, until then, he had looked like a sad shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

Joshua's Post-Fight Assessment

"That was not the finest display," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch 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 expected, but the straight right finally found its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he added an excuse for his own labored performance. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, referencing his last defeat. "We shook off the rust, and I am eager to head into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and Rising Stars

In the press conference afterwards, a jovial Joshua attempted a woeful imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that matchup comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world are Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk is still the undoubted ruler of the division, having beaten both Joshua and Fury twice. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising talent. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the amount of rounds that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished stupor.

Paul's Unbowed Reaction

But the public receives what the public wants, and that undoubtedly means additional low-quality celebrity contests. Paul seemed truly proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a hammer-like right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he posted an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in red.

That lighthearted nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a much superior boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, showed that Paul's brazen audacity is undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly find someone else with whom he can make 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 one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mixed harsh reality with blood-flecked bravado and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's certainly broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the greatest to ever do it. I love this shit and I'm going to return and continue winning."