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Jake Paul's mouth gaped wide open, his eyes becoming wide, stunned circles as he collapsed to the mat in stunned disbelief following a pulverising right hand from the former champion. It appeared as if Paul was attempting to utter "Wow!" as the force of the impact sank in to his scrambled senses.

"Those watching didn't pay to see this garbage," said the referee, summing up the sorry affair much more effectively than anyone else could.

Pinned in a corner of the ring in the middle of the sixth round, Paul could no longer retreat or hold on to Joshua's legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of the sweet science enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the shot that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an utterly dazed moment.

So this is how it feels, and looks, to be struck cleanly by a genuine professional fighter, an Olympic champion and ex- world heavyweight champion. "Goodness" is indeed the appropriate term.

It was the fourth time the social media star had been sent to the floor, but the consequences of a proper power shot ensured Paul would not be able to rise and taunt his opponent before the referee called the contest over. As blood began to trickle from his lips, and a numbing throb spread through his jawbone, Paul finally understood how difficult, grueling, and perilous boxing is at a decent level of competition.

An Unimpressive Commanding Win for Joshua

Anthony Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he made a cut-throat motion that hinted at a clinical and lethal execution when, in reality, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the fight. Rather than exuding intimidation or displaying an iron certainty, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for nearly five stanzas.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a basic essential in elite boxing, dictated the outcome. Lacking the stamina to escape any more, and reduced to falling to the deck as often as he could for a rest, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. Joshua applied the brutal ending, but, up to that point, he had looked like a mournful shadow of the boxer he had been in 2017.

The Winner's Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the best performance," Joshua conceded. "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 thoughts. It took a little more time than expected, but the right hand eventually found its destination."

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

The Future: Faded Forces and New Talent

In the press conference that followed, a cheerful Joshua attempted a poor imitation of Tyson Fury as he demanded a scrap against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably get his wish, but that matchup comes far too late in their careers. Both men are on the downward slope of the hill.

In stark contrast, the most compelling big men in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk remains the undoubted ruler of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury on two occasions. Meanwhile, Itauma is a rising force. The young British heavyweight likely have needed fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to knock Paul into a suitably astonished state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Reaction

But the fans receives what the public wants, and that certainly means more low-quality crossover fights. Paul appeared truly proud and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a hammer-like right. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, he shared an X-ray, with the pair of breaks marked in red.

That jokey nod to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally diminished presence, demonstrated that Paul's comic chutzpah remains undented. It may not be Canelo, but Paul will shortly locate another opponent 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 canvas. It was one more grim symbol of the night as Paul mangled harsh reality with blood-flecked bullshit and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper beating from one of the greatest to ever step in the ring. I adore this shit and I'm going to return and keep on winning."