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Jake Paul's mouth gaped wide open, his expression turning to huge glazed saucers as he sank to the mat in stunned disbelief following a devastating right hand from Anthony Joshua. It looked as if Paul was trying to utter "Whoa!" as the severity of the impact sank in to his rattled senses.

"The fans didn't pay to see this rubbish," said the referee, encapsulating the sorry affair far more effectively than any observer else could.

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 attempted to withstand the punch that fractured his mandible in two distinct locations, Paul was caught in an completely dazed moment.

So this is how it is like, and appears, to be struck cleanly by a genuine boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former 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 clean power shot ensured Paul could not get up and taunt his opponent before the official called the contest over. As blood began to leak from his mouth, and a dull ache spread through his jaw, Paul finally grasped how difficult, grueling, and dangerous boxing is at a respectable level of competition.

A Far From Commanding Victory for Joshua

Joshua, it should be stressed, was far from convincing during the bedlam. After his empty victory, he performed a cut-throat motion that suggested a clinical and lethal execution when, in truth, Joshua had cut a frustrated figure for most of the contest. Rather than glowering with menace or exhibiting an unshakeable confidence, Joshua had seemed tentative and awkward for almost five rounds.

Paul's poor fitness, which is a fundamental requirement in elite boxing, dictated the result. Without the gas to escape any longer, and resorting to slipping to the deck as often as he could for a breather, Paul was rendered helpless by exhaustion. 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 Aftermath Assessment

"It wasn't the best display," Joshua admitted. "The objective was to catch Jake Paul, corner him and do damage. 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 finally found its target."

Joshua commended Paul's bravery but he offered an explanation for his own stilted showing. "He came up against a real fighter tonight that's had a fifteen-month hiatus," Joshua said, mentioning his previous defeat. "We shook off the cobwebs, and I am eager to roll into 2026."

The Future: Past Their Prime and New Talent

In the press conference afterwards, a cheerful Joshua attempted a woeful impression of his domestic rival as he called for a fight against the currently retired boxer. Joshua will probably have his way, but that bout comes far too late in their professional journeys. Both fighters are on the downward slope of the hill.

In contrast, the most compelling heavyweights in the world remain Oleksandr Usyk and the British prospect. Usyk is still the undoubted ruler of the division, after defeating both Joshua and Fury twice. At the same time, Itauma is a rapidly ascending force. The youthful British heavyweight would probably have required fewer than half the amount of three-minute periods that Joshua needed to send Paul into a appropriately wowed state.

The Defeated Fighter's Defiant Response

But the public gets what the public desires, and that certainly means additional low-quality crossover contests. Paul appeared genuinely satisfied and cocky to have had his mandible fractured by a sledgehammer right. In the early hours of Saturday morning, he shared an radiograph, with the pair of breaks marked in red.

That lighthearted reference to Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, a far greater boxer than Joshua but a equally faded force, showed that Paul's brazen audacity remains undented. It might not be Canelo, but Paul will soon locate another opponent with whom he can earn north of $50 million.

While he was being interviewed, before leaving for the hospital, Paul expelled a streak of blood onto the canvas. It was one more bleak symbol of the night as Paul mangled blunt truth with blood-flecked bravado and said: "I believe my jaw is broken. It's definitely broke. A proper ass-whipping from one of the best to ever do it. I adore this sport and I'm going to return and keep on winning."