Who Hit Jake Paul the Hardest? Every Knockdown Examined

Updated: October 2026

Analysis: this piece is analytical commentary based on verified fight outcomes, not a round-by-round account. Claims about specific knockdowns are limited to what is established fact.

Across 14 professional fights, Jake Paul has been beaten twice — and only stopped once. So who hit Jake Paul the hardest? The answer requires separating the two defeats, because they tell very different stories about what happens when Paul meets someone who can genuinely hurt him.

The Short, Definitive Answer: Anthony Joshua

The only verified stoppage against Jake Paul is the Anthony Joshua knockout — KO in round six, at 1:31, on December 19, 2025, in Miami. Joshua didn't just beat Paul; he broke Paul's jaw in two places, an injury that required surgery and a 293-day road back to medical clearance.

There is no serious debate here. A broken jaw in two places, delivered by a former heavyweight champion, is the hardest anyone has ever hit Jake Paul — because it is the only time anyone has conclusively finished him. The Joshua KO stands alone in Paul's record as the single stoppage loss, and the injury it caused defined his entire 2026.

The Other Defeat: Tommy Fury (and What It Didn't Include)

Paul's other loss — the split decision to Tommy Fury on February 26, 2023, in Saudi Arabia — deserves careful handling. It is tempting to dramatize it, but the verified facts are limited: Fury won by split decision over the scheduled distance. There is no verified record of a Fury knockdown of Paul in that fight, and this article will not claim one.

What the Fury fight did show is that a disciplined boxer could outpoint Paul over rounds — a different kind of damage than Joshua's. Fury didn't stop Paul; he outboxed him. The "hardest hit" question has two dimensions: the single hardest punch (Joshua, by a mile) and the most sustained boxing lesson (Fury, by decision).

Who Troubled Him Most: An Honest Ranking

Framed as analysis of verified outcomes, here is how Paul's opponents rank by the trouble they caused him:

1. Anthony Joshua — the only man to stop Paul, and the only one to inflict a major injury. In a class of his own.
2. Tommy Fury — the only man to beat Paul over the distance, exposing the gap between Paul and a genuine boxer.
3. The decision-win opponents — Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz, Mike Tyson, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. all went the distance with Paul, but all lost. Going rounds with Paul is not the same as hurting him.
4. Everyone else — seven stoppage wins where Paul was never in verified danger of being stopped himself.

What the Two Losses Reveal About Paul's Chin

Here is the genuinely interesting analytical point: in 14 fights, Paul has been stopped exactly once — by one of the most dangerous heavyweight punchers of the modern era. That is not a fragile chin; that is a normal chin meeting an abnormal puncher. Plenty of elite professionals have been stopped by Anthony Joshua.

The Fury loss, meanwhile, says nothing about Paul's durability and everything about his boxing development at the time. He went the distance with a real boxer and lost a decision. Those are very different problems, and Paul's career since — the rebuild against August and Bourland, the decision wins over Tyson and Chavez Jr. — has been an attempt to solve the second one.

FAQ

Has Jake Paul ever been knocked down?

The only verified stoppage against Paul is the Anthony Joshua KO in round six on December 19, 2025. No other knockdown of Paul is established in the verified record.