Anthony Joshua confessed it took longer than expected to knock out Jake Paul after both fighters were warned ‘fans didn’t pay to watch this crap’ by referee Christopher Young.
The former two-time world champion finally got the job done and delivered the fireworks the crowd that packed inside the Kaseya Center in Miami had been anticipating in the sixth round.
Under a relentless barrage, Paul was eventually stopped and left nursing a broken jaw having take the fight, against the odds, to the latter stages.
That the contest went on as long as it did owed much to Joshua’s self-confessed rustiness – he had been out of competitive action for 15 months – as it did Paul’s delaying tactics.
Making out he had been struggling to maintain his footing, claiming he had been hit by several low blows and falling under minimal pressure, Paul had been frustrating his opponent until referee Young lost his patience at the end of the fourth round.
After the referee brought the fighters together in the middle of the ring, Netflix commentator Mauro Ranello screeched:’I don’t get this!
‘Christopher Young with the call of the night the fans did not pay to see this crap.’
Ultimately, Joshua emerged without too much by way of reputational damage, not to mention the small matter of his bank account boosted to the tune of around £70million.
‘It wasn’t the best performance,’ Joshua said immediately after the fight. ‘The end goal was to pin Jake Paul down and hurt him.
‘That has been the request leading up, that was on my mind. It took a bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally found the destination.
‘Jake Paul has done really well tonight, I want to give him the props. He got up time and time again. It was difficult in there for him, but he kept trying to find a way. It takes a real man to do that.
‘You have to give Jake credit for trying, but he came up against a real fighter tonight.
‘We shook off the cobwebs, I can’t wait for 2026. If Tyson Fury is as serious as he says 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, step into there with me next if you’re a really bad boy.’
Asked if he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to end the fight any earlier, Joshua added: ‘I see Eddie Hearn telling me to get him now. As I said, I need to give this guy a systematic breakdown.
‘I know what type of fighter he is. When the time comes, some people are just there to get knocked out.
‘I refuse to get hurt. I refuse to be beat. This is boxing, I will get hit. There was no hurting me, it’s just what we do. At the end of the day there will be one winner and that was me. Well done Jake.
‘I don’t care about the legacy. All the legacy is there to just last for 50 years, then it’s done. This is what I do, I’ll do it till I can’t any more.’
