Internet personality Jake Paul went to the hospital with a double broken jaw after he was knocked out by two-time heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua in Netflix’s highly anticipated fight on Dec. 19.
“Surgery went well,” Paul captioned in an Instagram post with his thumbs up as he laid in a hospital bed hooked up to machines on Dec. 20.
“Thanks for all the love and support. 2 titanium plates on each side. Some teeth removed. Have to have only liquids for 7 days.”
Friday’s fight at the Kaseya Center in Miami started out slow as Paul seemingly attempted to avoid his larger opponent until referee Christopher Young yelled at the fighters for not giving fans a good show in the fourth round.
“Fans didn’t pay to see this crap, OK?” Young said, per a Netflix clip.
“You gonna fight, you gonna fight, but fight within the rules. OK? Touch ’em up, fight clean.”
The action picked up quickly after Young’s mid-fight criticism.
The YouTuber fell twice in the fifth round and another time in the sixth before Joshua dropped him a fourth time with a right punch to the head.
“The end goal was to get Jake Paul, pin him down, and hurt him,” Joshua said in an interview after his win.
“That has been the request leading up, and that was what was on my mind. It took a little bit longer than expected but the right hand finally found its destination.”
The 36-year-old England native stood at 6’6” tall, had a 6-inch reach advantage, and weighed 26.8 pounds more than the 6’1” Paul at the final weigh-in, according to Netflix.
“Jake Paul, he’s done really well tonight. I want to give him his props. He got up time and time again. It was difficult in there for him but he kept on trying to find a way.”
Joshua was heavily expected to win the fight. Even Grand Slam golf champion Rory McIlroy, who attended the event, predicted to Netflix that Paul would be knocked out in the first few rounds.
“I just got tired, to be honest,” the bloodied 28-year-old said in an interview after the knockout.
“It was just so much handling his weight. I think if I could have had better cardio, I think I could have kept it up and kept on fighting but he did amazing.”
Friday’s fight was Joshua’s first return to the ring since Daniel Dubois knocked him out in the fifth round in September 2024.
Despite Friday’s knockout and injuries, Paul has published a series of social media posts about his recovery and has already started asking fans who he should fight next.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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