Anthony Joshua Knocked Out Jake Paul in a Fight That Made No Sense

Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua may have had the satisfying ending that many have been hoping to happen for a long time. It, however, came with one of the most head-scratching, baffling, bizarre, and criticized fights modern boxing has seen.

Nevertheless, Joshua fulfilled (at least in the record books) the expectation many expected by scoring the knockout win over Paul.

How we got to this point, however, is a completely different, off-the-walls kind of story.

The first few rounds saw very few punches actually land, to the point where play-by-play man Mauro Ranallo called out the fight for being an embarrassment. He flat-out stated that there was little to no offense in what turned out to be the first half of the fight – and he was absolutely right.

In fact, Compubox numbers state that through three rounds, Joshua had landed just 13 out of 62 shots. Paul? Just six of 21.

To Paul’s credit, one smart thing he did during the first round (and throughout the fight) was bounce around on the outside and look for openings from there while managing distance. This allowed him to get a feel for his range vs. Joshua’s range, avoid Joshua’s power, and come up with a strategy as he was able to last minutes throughout the fight.

In spite of the lack of punches landed, Joshua’s aggression really came to fruition over the second and third round, as he tried to cut off the ring and forced Paul to avoid tasting the power that led him to two unified heavyweight world boxing championships.

Then came the fourth round. And this is where everything went more crazy – and I wonder where Paul’s mind was at with the decisions that he made.

After Joshua landed a notable combination during the round, Paul began to go for takedown attempts as if he were in an MMA fight. In fact, over the remaining three rounds of the action, Paul went for a combined 13 takedown attempts on Joshua.

Let me remind you again that they were in a BOXING match.

The crazier part? Joshua got some of the flack, too, from the referee for Paul’s takedowns antics. One of those saw Joshua’s knee go right into Paul’s groin. So, whatever, I’ll give them that. But after that? It’s ridiculous – just like this fight’s existence.

The more bananas thing? Paul didn’t get deducted any points for his antics. It’s one thing to do a lot of clinching in this sport (Floyd Mayweather Jr. exists after all). It’s another to do MMA-like things in a boxing match. How funny and ironic that Paul, who did sign with the PFL a few years ago but has yet to have a professional MMA fight, is trying MMA-style takedowns in a BOXING ring.

Also, even in boxing we can’t get away from the controversies of these referees from the state athletic commissions. How was Paul not disqualified, let alone not deducted points?

Nevertheless, credit has to be given to the referee, Christopher Young, who got to a point where he told the fighters that the crowd didn’t “pay to see this crap” they were putting on in the ring.

Mercifully, the fifth round was the beginning of the end, as Joshua knocked Paul down twice during the frame, with the bell saving Paul before he could get knocked down a third time. But another two knockdowns in the sixth, and that was all she wrote.

Paul managed to survive five-plus rounds with a former heavyweight champion, but it was with perhaps the worst boxing performance of his career. 

Joshua got his gameplan and gave many people what they’ve waited about five years for – but many were left frustrated that it took until the sixth round of an eight-round bout, and some criticized him for taking a big payday for a fight that many felt is an embarrassment to the sport.

But if you went into Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua expecting no shenanigans to go down, then I have a really lovely, beautiful, majestic villa in Italy that you might be interested in buying, too.