Jake Paul is back – but not in the ring. His jawline looks fine, yet the injury Anthony Joshua inflicted three weeks ago, when they met at Miami’s Kaseya Center, may take time to heal. Boxing’s self-proclaimed disruptor received considerable attention when pictures of him recovering in a hospital surfaced. Broken in two places, his jaw was swollen after surgery that involved the insertion of plates.

At the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, a Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) card headlined by Amanda Serrano unfolded, and Jake Paul made an appearance. From what he said during an interview, it appears he faces an uphill battle before making a full recovery. Paul suffered a knockout loss to Anthony Joshua on December 19. It later emerged that he broke his jaw during the melee, which ended his chances of staging a historic upset. After the fight, he drove himself to the hospital for treatment.

Inside Jake Paul’s recovery after the Anthony Joshua knockout

Claudia Trejos seemed surprised when she met Jake Paul: “You had your jaw broken in two pieces. What is it? And you’re perfectly fine. There’s no swelling. There’s nothing. How’s that healing coming along?”

Jake acknowledged that he had four plates in his jaw. Injuries like these, he said, are part of the sport. But that’s just half the story, it seems. The healing process has unfolded a difficult chapter for Jake.

“I’m a little bit tired,” he said, adding that he’s finding it hard to sleep. “I go under the pillow, and then my jaw twerks up to the left, and I wake up.”

While he may be struggling physically, mentally, however, he sounded upbeat.

“It was an amazing night. And I learned a lot and gained a lot of experience. And we’re moving on to more fights this year,” he added.

In the initial rounds of the fight, Jake Paul came out strong, darting inside and avoiding AJ’s deadly shots. But as the fight progressed, his gas tank emptied, leaving him vulnerable to the heavy hitter’s piercing punches.

The end came in the sixth round when a volley of punches floored Jake in the corner.

Jake Paul’s championship dreams face a test

Later, he claimed that he might have won at least two rounds in the fight. But while he licks his wounds, the impact of the second career loss to yet another active boxer has exacted a price. In the lead-up to the fight, Jake had climbed into the top 15 of the WBA’s cruiserweight rankings.

However, the loss resulted in his removal from the roster.

Considering that he aims for a world title in the near future, the path forward now appears daunting. The loss to AJ has put him back at proverbial square one. More significantly, given that the defeat was inflicted by yet another professional boxer, the familiar route of facing non-boxers may no longer work to Jake Paul’s advantage.

If he wants to establish his boxing legitimacy, he will have to fight a bona fide active boxer. After years of backlash, marked by criticism for facing retired or faded former champions, Jake Paul may have flipped the script slightly by stepping in with Joshua. Despite the loss, some appreciated his courage to square up against someone like AJ, and he can hardly afford to lose that momentum.