Jake Paul warned boxing profession could also be over after ‘double damaged jaw’ in defeat
Jake Paul was taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw after being knocked out by Anthony Joshua in six rounds and has now confirmed the British heavyweight broke his jaw in two places
Jake Paul has revealed that Anthony Joshua shattered his jaw in two places, with Eddie Hearn cautioning that the YouTuber’s boxing career could be over.
Paul was brutally knocked out by Joshua in the sixth round of their clash in Miami on Friday evening (Saturday December 20 UK time). Joshua found it difficult to pin down the social media star, who fled at every chance before clinging to Joshua’s legs and crashing to the floor.
Joshua finally finished him off with a devastating right hook, and Paul was rushed straight to hospital with what turned out to be a fractured jaw. He shared an image of his X-ray on social media with the message: “Double broken jaw. Give me Canelo in 10 days.”
Joshua’s promoter Hearn offered praise for Paul whilst cautioning about the lengthy rehabilitation ahead, reports the Mirror.”I really take my hat off to him but a broken jaw is very difficult to come back from,” he said.
“That last shot would have knocked out a lot of heavyweights. I know he went down heavy but he was conscious on the floor. And I thought his game plan, although it was very cautious early on, which it had to be, was smart at times. And there were times he set his feet and let his hands go.”,
“It was a very one-sided fight, it was always going to be, but you can’t do anything but give him a lot of credit and respect. There are a lot of negative people and they want to criticise people but they’re not doing what Jake Paul is doing.
“He went in there with Anthony Joshua and have it his best shot. He took a lot of punishment and ended the fight on his feet, eventually, after the stoppage. I think he will have to see how he is physically with his jaw, I don’t know the severity of it, but it’s a very difficult injury to come back from.”
Joshua then called out Tyson Fury after labouring to a sixth-round victory over Paul.
AJ, who is reportedly close to agreeing a long-awaited fight against Fury in Riyadh in 2026, was made to work far harder than he would have liked to extinguish the challenge of a brave, but extremely limited, opponent as he did little to suggest he was close to returning to the upper echelons of the sport.
The former heavyweight champion struggled to land a meaningful punch as Paul proved elusive in the early rounds, but dropped him twice in the fifth before finally securing a knockout in round six.
“It wasn’t the best performance,” Joshua told Netflix.
“We have to give Jake his respect for trying and trying and trying, but he came up against a real fighter tonight that’s had a 15-month layoff, who shook off the cobwebs.
“I can’t wait to roll into 2026. If Tyson Fury is as serious as he thinks he is, and he wants to put down his Twitter fingers and put on some gloves and come and fight one of the realest fighters out there, that will take on any challenge, step in the ring with me next if you’re a real bad boy.
“Don’t do all that talking, ‘AJ this, AJ that’, let’s see you in the ring and talk with your fists.”
