Former heavyweight boxing world champion Anthony Joshua tired out and then put away viral star Jake Paul on Friday night, delivering a sixth-round knockout to end their heavyweight boxing mismatch.
After a slow, low-output first half to the Netflix-streamed clash in Miami, Florida, the actual fight didn’t last long once the heavyweights started to finally throw an adequate amount. Joshua followed through on his promise of a finish win, earning four knockdowns in the span of just one-and-a-half rounds before the fight’s end.
The first four rounds of the fight saw Paul circle the 22-by-22-foot ring’s perimeter, using his quick feet to make him a hard-to-hit opponent. Joshua failed to land early on against Paul, but Paul also didn’t make much of an effort to connect with his own blows, either. After 12 minutes of action, the crowd wasn’t too pleased.
Paul used clinches to slow down the fight and stall, often dropping to a knee as if he was shooting in for a wrestling takedown. While warned by a referee, this never caused a point deduction.
Paul suffered his first and second knockdown of the fight by the fifth, when cardio struggles slowed him down significantly. Paul was hit both in the head and body, visibly hurting him before going down. Equally notable in the round was Joshua shaking off a clean overhand right from Paul, one of the power punches some expected could provide trouble, if landed.
Paul consumed two more takedowns in the sixth, with a clean right cross being the shot which made referee Chris Young finally wave off the fight. For the brief amount of time that Joshua was able to find Paul to connect with his blows, it was a one-sided beatdown.
The moment Anthony Joshua knocked Jake Paul out! #JakeJoshua pic.twitter.com/TiP0ovbpzf
— Netflix (@netflix) December 20, 2025
“It took a bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally found the destination,” said Joshua, who admitted it wasn’t his best performance.
Paul claimed afterward that cardio had become a major factor in the fight’s ending.
“I just got tired, to be honest,” Paul said. “It was just so much handling his weight. I think if I could’ve had better cardio, I could’ve kept up and kept fighting.”
Joshua has spent the better part of two decades dedicating himself to the sport of boxing, beginning at the age of 18. He started as a decorated amateur, winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. By 2018, he was a multi-time world champ who had headlined a pair of high-profile matchups in Wembley Stadium.
Joshua’s accolades alone made him a steep challenge for Paul to face on Friday. Add to the fact that Joshua is a towering six-foot-six and has spent his entire career fighting in a higher weight class than Paul, this weekend’s fight was a significant mismatch.
Paul, a viral star who has made boxing his main hustle for the past half-decade, has scored wins over a long list of credentialed fighters, including Nate Diaz, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Anderson Silva, and, notoriously, against Mike Tyson. But gigantic +800 underdog odds reflected that none of his past wins came close to the challenge he faced on Saturday.
The original plan for Paul’s final fight of 2025 was another freakshow fight, except it actually saw him with the size advantage. Earlier this year, Paul was scheduled to take on five-foot-five lightweight boxing world champion Gervonta Davis. The matchup was scheduled to be a test of whether Davis’ elite boxing skills would allow him to overcome the significantly larger Paul.
Davis, who has a history of domestic violence and battery allegations, was hit with a new civil lawsuit in October, alleging an instance of violence and kidnapping of a former girlfriend. Due to this lawsuit, the late-November date against Paul was canned. Paul’s next appearance was delayed by a month, and Joshua became the new opponent.
By the end of the night, this was clear: A world-class heavyweight boxer who has been among the best for over a decade was better than a much smaller cruiserweight who has never fought at the championship level, either as a pro or amateur.
It begs the question, as asked by announcer Mauro Ranallo on the broadcast just minutes after the finish: “What have we proven here?”
