Eddie Hearn has provided a disturbing Jake Paul update after the Problem Child suffered a brutal knockout at the hands of Anthony Joshua.
Paul and Joshua met in an eight-round Netflix superfight in Miami on Friday night, with the 28-year-old suffering a first knockout of his fledgling professional career.
He was handed his second loss in the heavyweight encounter after being knocked out in the sixth round and requiring a swift trip to hospital afterwards.
Paul had immediate suspicions that he suffered a broken jaw and that was confirmed at Miami University hospital hospital, with the YouTuber-turned-boxer successfully undergoing surgery and being required to eat liquids for a period of seven days.
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Despite his life-altering injury, Paul had still expressed a keenness on continuing to boxing and even claimed that he would challenge for the world championship at cruiserweight.
But he is poised to be out of action for a considerable period as he rests and heals from his broken jaw. And Matchroom chief Hearn believes that he may finish on 14 fights given the severity of the injury caused as a result of Joshua's brutal hits.
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"You do know that he's broken his jaw in two places?" Hearn said in an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show when responding to talk of the bout being fixed.
"He may never be able to fight again. People just think, 'Oh, you just get your jaw wired, bolted together by a couple of screws, and on you go.'
"There have been many fighters who have had their jaws broken that never boxed again."
He added: "We're not actors here. It was one hundred per cent real, there was never any strategy, any deal, any script. AJ wanted to land clean as soon as possible. Unfortunately the only time he landed really clean was in the sixth round."
Expert explains Jake Paul jaw recovery process
Hearn's comments came at the same time former boxer Chris Algieri expertly broken down the difficulty in healing and recovering from a broken jaw. The 41-year-old, who fought Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan and has a bachelor's degree in healthcare science, predicted a lengthy spell on the sidelines for Paul.
He explained the exact process which will take place following the "catastrophic injury".
"It's a very bad injury," he admitted on Boxing Scene.
"A double fracture on both sides, you're going to lose teeth there too. If you saw the x-rays of post-surgery, you saw the two plates on each side and the missing teeth because they have to take those out because of where the fractures are.
"In terms of the healing process, first of all those plates they put on there, it's basically a bridge and the bone is allowed to grow and heal around that. That bone density needs to fill in first before they can put those teeth back in.
"You got to drill into a jaw while it's healing to put tooth implants - that's not a great idea. So you've got to wait for that to heal and then recover before you put those teeth in. Then you've got to get your jaw shrink back. He's going to be out of the ring for a while. He's been busy and putting on big shows, sometimes twice a year. He's going to take some time off but we'll see how that jaw comes together because that's a catastrophic injury."
Topics: Eddie Hearn, Jake Paul
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