The moment the heavyweight fight between Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua was announced, there were calls from Paul's critics for Joshua, the former two-time unified heavyweight champion, to end the boxing career of the social media personality-turned-boxer. Well, to paraphrase the famous, often misquoted Mark Twain line, "Reports of Jake Paul's demise are greatly exaggerated."
Paul was outclassed, dropped four times and knocked out in the sixth round by Joshua during their fight in Miami on Friday. It wasn't pretty, with Paul constantly circling away and clinching, but Joshua eventually caught up to a tiring Paul with a wicked straight right hand that ended the fight -- and, according to Paul, broke his jaw.
The immediate aftermath had Paul skeptics celebrating that what they had called a charade was over. However, Paul made it clear after the loss that his boxing career will continue.
"I'm going to come back and fight people my weight and go for the cruiserweight world championship at some point," Paul said. "I'm going to take a little break. I've been going hard for six years, so I'm going to take some time off."
Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, believes Paul's boxing career should continue, if he wants it to.
"Hats off to Jake," Hearn told ESPN following the fight. "A broken jaw is really difficult to come back from, but that last shot AJ hit him with would have knocked out a lot of heavyweights. He went down hard but he was conscious on the floor. It was a one-sided fight -- always was going to be a one-sided fight -- but you can't give him anything but credit and respect."
Joshua, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Great Britain, also weighed in on Paul's future.
"America, I think you have someone who could potentially come back, dust the dirt off his shoulder and come back sometime in 2026. Maybe against Gervonta Davis or Ryan Garcia, who knows?"
So, there's that. The "Jake Paul Boxing Show" is far from over. But the question is: Where does he go from here?
The next chapter of Paul's career is going to be the most difficult one to figure out Paul, who turns 29 in January. To this point, he's navigated his career quite well, balancing business with entertainment. He has picked the right opponents, ones with just enough skill to be competitive. However, if he wants to be taken seriously after 14 pro fights, he can't exactly go backward and fight another MMA fighter after stepping into the ring with a former two-time heavyweight champion. Nor can he risk losing to another opponent with considerably more experience than him.
Paul has routinely suggested that he wants to challenge for a world title at cruiserweight, but the list of champions he would have to choose from to reach that goal presents some problems. Neither IBF titlist Jai Opetaia, WBO and WBA champion Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez nor the WBC's Noel Mikaelian is a household name that will do big business with him, and all of them are champions for a reason. On the flip side, it's going to be increasingly difficult for Paul to draw fans to another fight with someone who is either much older, not a full-time boxer or undersized.
When Paul does decide to come back, rest assured that he'll get just as much, if not more, attention. His next move will make waves, positive or negative. What he accomplished by stepping into the ring with a violent finisher such as Joshua is proof that he has the heart, grit and determination to compete. However, there are levels to competition and he was severely outsized and outclassed. There will be questions about his game plan of circling the ring with a reluctance to throw punches. For a showman such as Paul, this strategy was anything but entertaining, a sharp 180 from his previous fights.
He took some hard shots from a former heavyweight champ and not only survived for more than five rounds but continued to get off the canvas until, according to a Paul post on social media, he had his jaw broken in two places. He could have packed it in after the first knockdown, but he refused to stay on the canvas. In his desperate attempts at survival, he was barely able to stay upright and dove in for clinch attempts that turned into takedowns. But this is what happens when you step beyond your depth. You drown.
His critics will still voice their complaints, but they'll likely continue to begrudgingly tune in to watch the next stage of Paul's career. His fans will salivate over his every move and continue to cheer the unlikely rise of an influencer who decided to make a boxing side quest and a massively lucrative gig. Everyone in between might stay curious whenever his next fight is announced depending on his opponent.
Paul is big business, and there will always be a place for someone who draws eyeballs to the sport like he does.
Ultimately, it will be up to Paul to decide whether he wants to sacrifice business for progress toward his goal of challenging for a world title or if he's willing to accept the scrutiny for another so-called "circus fight" against a smaller fighter such as Ryan Garcia or Gervonta "Tank" Davis. Either way, Paul has options, and this journey he is on is just entering its next phase.