Joshua vs Paul live: Joshua leaves Jake Paul with ‘broken jaw’ after winning controversial Netflix fight

Former NFL player and TV personality Shannon Sharpe said: “What are we watching? Is Joshua going to let his hands go? This looks more like WWE than a boxing match, but here I am watching.”

“We wanted him to dominate, use the jab, set up the right hand,” Laila Ali told Netflix.

“He got there eventually. Jake was running around the ring, I’d like to see Joshua go back and work on cutting off the ring.

“The fans saw a fun fight, it played out how we thought anyway but wasn’t in the first round.”

Anthony Joshua defended his performance against Jake Paul in his post-fight press conference, and said his beaten opponent had displayed a lot of “heart and spirit”.

“What I could have done better is a lot of things, 100 per cent. In the fight game, you’ve seen the amazing fighters that have graced us over the last 100 years and the expectations that we put on ourselves are immense.

“But I tried my best. Jake done well while it lasted. I wish that I could have knocked him out at the start, but as we as we saw tonight, Jake has spirit. He has some heart. He tried his best and I take my hat off to him because number one, a lot of fighters haven’t got in the ring with me and Jake did.

“And secondly, even when he got knocked down, he kept on trying to get up and I take my heart off to him. So America, I think you have someone who could potentially, if he still has the heart for it, come back again, dust the dirt off his shoulder and come again and maybe sell out this arena sometime in 2026.

“Maybe against a Gervonta Davis, a Ryan Garcia, who knows?”

Jake Paul says he wants to fight men his own size and eventually win a cruiserweight world title.

Will the interest be there, though?

Jai Opetaia is widely considered the number one cruiserweight on the planet, he owns The Ring belt, and the IBF world title.

Gilberto Ramirez holds the WBO and WBA straps, while Noel Mikaelyn is the WBC champion.

Paul is ranked 15th by the WBA, and could continue down that route, their rankings are currently:

Champion: Gilberto Ramirez

12. Giovanni Cristian Scuderi

“Regardless of the outcome Jake Paul got into the ring with an Olympic gold medalist and former heavyweight world champion and tried his best until the very end. You have to give that man his respect now…

“He’s done what most would never & he didn’t give up. Well done Jake.

Jake Paul has revealed his injuries following his heavy defeat to former world champion Anthony Joshua.

Paul posted an X-ray of what appeared to be a double fracture, having claimed to have suffered a broken jaw in the ring while spitting out blood.

“Double broken jaw,” Paul said, adding in a previous post, “Jaw broken. Heart and balls in tact. Time to rest, recover and return to Cruiserweight.”

Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said: “We want the Tyson Fury fight. That’s the biggest fight in boxing.

“Respect to Jake Paul, he did a great job. 2026, back to the real business. Tyson Fury and the world heavyweight championship.”

Jake Paul is getting respect from many for his efforts in the ring.

But others are irritated by his tendency to collapse and hug Joshua’s torso to avoid any legitimate interactions, former world champion Paulie Malignaggi has claimed Paul “wasted the fans’s time”.