Anthony Joshua stops Jake Paul with sixth-round KO in Miami spectacle

Anthony Joshua stopped Jake Paul with a sixth-round knockout in their heavyweight bout Friday night at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Joshua knocked Paul down twice in the fifth round and closed the show with a finishing flurry in the sixth, delivering the knockout after a back-and-forth stretch. Joshua landed 62% of his power shots.

Paul started the night strong, circling and firing whenever possible, and the first round was likely his, but Joshua began to seize control as the fight wore on. Paul’s tactic of roughing up Joshua and tying him up drew boos from the crowd and prompted the referee to intervene on several occasions. In the middle of the fourth round, the official addressed the arena with a blunt message: "Fans did not pay to see this crap." Joshua acknowledged after the fight that it was not his best performance, adding that Paul held his own for stretches of the bout. The turning point came in the fifth, when Joshua landed power shots that dropped Paul twice, though Paul managed to survive to the final round.

Paul entered the bout with only one blemish on his record—a loss to Tommy Fury. He had defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Mike Tyson in high-profile exhibitions, the latter fueling talk of a crossover-era spectacle. After the fight, Paul said he believed his jaw was broken and that he would take some time off before returning to the ring. Joshua, who had not fought since last September when he was stopped by Daniel Dubois in an IBF title bout, extended his own streak of high-profile fights and upsets the narrative surrounding the heavyweight division.

Joshua had not fought since September and had entered the ring seeking a signature win to set up a potential mega-fight. He had previously won four straight bouts against notable opponents, including Francis Ngannou, Otto Wallin, Robert Helenius and Jermaine Franklin, establishing himself as a still-dangerous force in the division. After the knockout, Joshua called out Tyson Fury for a possible super bout that boxing fans have awaited for years.

The result shakes up a heavyweight landscape that has been defined by elite showdowns in recent years. Paul, who had built a brand around his boxing experiments and social-media fame, faced a stern test against a proven champion, while Joshua reaffirmed his position as one of the sport’s premier heavyweights, able to close out fights with decisive power.

In the immediate aftermath, the crowd’s reaction was mixed, but the result stood: Joshua had delivered the definitive moment of the night, a reminder that even in a sport of perception and spectacle, real knockout power remains a defining factor. The box office and television conversations instantly turned toward a potential Fury showdown, with both fighters’ teams weighing the next steps in a heavyweight landscape that has long awaited that collision.