Jake Paul reveals he will not be able to eat solid food for a week after surgery on the broken jaw he suffered in defeat to Anthony Joshua.
The American was stopped in the sixth round of the bizarre bout with former world heavyweight champion Joshua in Miami on Saturday night.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer did his best to keep moving and avoid too much engagement early in the fight, with Joshua not really pressing the issue either.
The referee, Christopher Young, lost patience with the dull encounter and got the fighters together towards the end of the fourth round, telling them: ‘Fans didn’t pay to watch this crap.’
After that, Paul began to run out of gas and Joshua stepped up the pressure, with the underdog going down in the fifth and then again in the sixth as the fight was called off.
A crushing right hand ended the bout, with Paul bravely climbing back to his feet, but his race was run.
The beaten man revealed after that he suffered a broken jaw in two places and has already had an operation on the injury.
On Saturday Paul posted an update after surgery, saying all went well, but he will be eating through a straw for a week to come.
‘Just got out of surgery. Everything went smooth,’ Paul posted on X. ‘Thanks for all the love. Lots of pain and stiffness. Gotta eat liquids for 7 days.
‘S/o to the amazing team at Miami University hospital. Everyone was so gracious and caring.’
After defeat Paul put the loss down to fatigue and felt he could have kept up the challenge if he had a better gas tank.
‘I just got tired, to be honest,’ he said. ‘It was just so much handling his weight. I think if I could have had better cardio, I would have kept it up and kept on fighting. He did amazing. He hits really hard, and I did my personal best.
‘I got my ass beat, but that’s what this sport is about. I’m a come back and keep winning.’
Joshua, who has obviously boxed at a far higher level than this, was not thrilled with his performance in victory.
‘No, I needed to do better. I needed to do better,’ said AJ on whether he was happy with his display.
‘It’s a win, but it’s not a success. I think my coach expects more from me and I expect more from myself. But what can we do? I have to move forward. I have to put that in the past now.
‘I can’t live off that win, I’ve got a lot of improvement I need to do.’
The Olympic gold medallist had praise for his opponent’s heart as he kept trying to fight on even after the final blow.
‘Jake done well while it lasted,’ said the Brit. ‘But fighting is not just physical it’s psychological, and when you understand the psychological warfare, I did say: “What’s going to happen is I’m going to see a time when I’m going to take your soul and you’re either going to give up or get knocked out.”
‘And unless you have that instinct, you just will never be a good fighter. I wish I could have knocked him out at the start, but as we saw, Jake has spirit. He has some heart and I take my hat off to him.
‘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 trying to get up.’
