Jake Paul couldn’t answer the count in the sixth round against Anthony Joshua, and Daniel Cormier believes the outcome was inevitable from the moment the fight was booked.
Paul and Joshua clashed inside the Kaseya Center in Miami on Friday night. Despite early resistance from Paul, the gap in experience and power eventually told. Joshua broke Paul down and finished him, leaving “The Problem Child” with a broken jaw by the end of the bout.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Daniel Cormier didn’t mince words about the matchup or its conclusion.
“Some people believe in fairytales,” Cormier said. “Whoever believed that Jake Paul was going to win, that was an absolute fairytale. There was never a world in which Jake Paul was going to beat Anthony Joshua. It was always a matter of how the fight would end.”
Cormier acknowledged that Paul has evolved beyond the YouTuber label, crediting him for investing heavily in his boxing career. Still, he made it clear that resources and dedication can only take a fighter so far.
“You can’t lose to a guy that’s perceived to be a YouTuber,” Cormier said. “Even though today, Jake Paul is more boxer than YouTuber. When you can spend a million dollars a year on training camps, coaches, housing, food, this isn’t recreational anymore. He’s a boxer. He’s just not a boxer at that level.”
As the rounds wore on, Cormier saw the finish coming. Paul slowed down, stopped moving, and became a stationary target for one of the division’s most dangerous punchers.
“In the sixth round, you could just tell this fight was over,” Cormier explained. “You knew Anthony Joshua was eventually going to land something that hurt Jake Paul. That right hand, oh my God. He took all of it. You could see it on his face. He was like, ‘OK, now I understand boxing. I understand it at its worst.’”
Cormier admitted he was relieved the fight ended when it did, believing further punishment would have only worsened the damage.
“Honestly, I was hoping he didn’t get up,” Cormier said. “Because it was only going to get worse.”
Paul will now step away from the ring to recover from surgery on his jaw, while continuing his work behind the scenes with Most Valuable Promotions. Joshua, meanwhile, may finally be closing in on a long-discussed showdown with Tyson Fury, with talks of a 2026 clash gaining momentum.
From Daniel Cormier’s perspective, the result wasn’t shocking, it was simply boxing reality catching up.
