Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua final punch stats revealed after Briton’s KO win

Joshua stopped the YouTuber-turned-boxer in the sixth round after struggling to pin him down early on

Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul’s fight on Friday was hardly a classic, although many fans got their wish of seeing the YouTube star suffer a stoppage defeat.

Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion, struggled to pin down the evasive Paul in the early rounds but eventually found the target.

• Follow LIVE: Joshua vs Paul fallout as Briton stops YouTuber in six rounds

He dropped Paul four times in the middle rounds of a scheduled eight, ultimately forcing the stoppage in the sixth frame at Miami’s Kaseya Centre.

Meanwhile, Paul’s offence was extremely limited, with the American opting to dive at Joshua’s legs repeatedly throughout the bout – seemingly in a bid to avoid damage and buy time.

Now, Compubox’s statistics for the fight have listed Paul, 28, as having landed a meagre 16 punches from 56 thrown in the five-and-a-half completed rounds. Still, some viewers will have been impressed that Paul even managed to land that many.

Meanwhile, Joshua is credited with 48 successful punches from 154 thrown. That puts his percentage of success at 33 per cent, while Paul’s stands at 29 per cent.

Joshua came in for criticism of his performance in many corners, with promoter Lou DiBella tweeting: “The guy who should feel ashamed right now is Anthony Joshua ... that was his legacy. Paul is a great businessman. AJ doesn’t give two s***s about #boxing.”

Journalist Kevin Iole added: “He won’t with $100 million on the table to fight [Tyson] Fury, but AJ ought to retire. That was an epically bad performance.”

But Joshua’s job was complicated by Paul not only diving at his legs frequently but also skipping away for the majority of the fight – and at times running away.

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Anthony Joshua (right) trying to pin down Jake Paul (AP)

As the shorter man, Paul was also able to duck away into safe spaces when backed against the ropes, although at other times he chose to crash into a stalking “AJ” to avoid the most-dangerous range.

But Joshua eventually found the shots required to put away the American, even leading Paul to claim that he had suffered a broken jaw.

Joshua, 36, said in his post-fight interview: “It wasn’t the best performance. The end goal was to get him, pin him down and hurt him. That’s what people wanted, that was on my mind. It took longer than expected.

“Now, Jake Paul has done really well tonight. He got up, time and time again. It was difficult for me in there. We give them their respect, he tried and tried, but he came up against a real fighter in there.

“I saw Eddie [Hearn, promoter] saying: ‘Get him now!’ I said I’d take his soul, see it leaving his body round after round. I said it, and it happened. I understand the psychology of fighting.”