More than two months after his brutal heavyweight defeat to Anthony Joshua, American boxer and social media personality Jake Paul has undergone a second corrective surgery on his jaw, underscoring the lasting physical toll of one of the most controversial bouts in modern boxing.
Jake Paul, who transitioned from YouTube stardom and a Disney Channel acting career into professional boxing, suffered a severe facial injury during his December 2025 showdown with former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The fight, staged amid global hype and criticism, ended in a sixth-round knockout victory for Joshua and reportedly earned both fighters around $50 million, making it one of the most lucrative crossover bouts in boxing history.
During the contest, Jake Paul was caught by a powerful right hand from Joshua that fractured his jaw in two places. Medical scans later confirmed the seriousness of the injury, which required immediate surgical intervention.
Despite undergoing an initial operation shortly after the fight, Paul revealed this week that complications from his recovery process forced him back into surgery.
In a statement shared on his Instagram page, Paul disclosed that the plates and screws inserted during the first procedure had begun to loosen.
“Had to get another jaw surgery. The screws and plates were coming loose because apparently I didn’t rest for the past two months,” he wrote, acknowledging that his active lifestyle had interfered with proper healing.
In the weeks following the fight, Paul had been seen frequently in public, most notably supporting his Dutch girlfriend, Jutta Leerdam, at the recently concluded Winter Olympics.
Leerdam went on to win gold in the women’s 1,000-metre speed skating event, and Paul was often spotted in the stands cheering her on—appearances that now appear to have come at a cost to his recovery.
The Joshua fight itself was widely viewed as a sporting mismatch, with critics questioning the legitimacy of pairing a natural cruiserweight with a seasoned heavyweight champion.
Jake Paul entered the bout significantly lighter than Joshua, and although he attempted to rely on movement and endurance in the early rounds, the size and power disparity became increasingly evident as the fight progressed.
The knockout in the sixth round effectively ended the contest and left Paul with the most serious injury of his boxing career.
The bout also had consequences beyond the ring. In a tragic postscript, Anthony Joshua later suffered injuries in a separate road accident while on holiday in Nigeria, an incident that claimed the lives of two members of his team—adding a somber chapter to a period that had already been marked by violence and loss.
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