Jake Paul made Anthony Joshua chase him, but he could not run forever.
It took six rounds, but two-time champion Joshua finally landed the knockout blow in their contest in Miami, handing the YouTuber a second defeat in his foray into boxing.
Paul, bleeding from the mouth, told Netflix after the fight that he thought his jaw was broken by the final shot delivered to him by a man who came into the fight with a 13 centimetre height advantage and a 12 kilogram weight advantage.
But he then said he wanted to use the defeat to show he is ready to challenge for cruiserweight world titles.
Although that should be considered a delusional fantasy, the fact that this fight took place at all showed the pulling power that Paul has in the boxing world.
Just getting a two-time former world champion into the ring, one who was still active and in peak shape, showed that Paul had no fear of reputation or the orthodoxy of a sport that demands levels of achievement before title bouts are considered.
And there was nothing orthodox from a boxing perspective about the fight that took place in Miami either.
Paul's game plan was to run around the ring and make the bigger man chase him — and it worked for a while, with few punches landing from either fighter.
But as Paul tired, his legs deserted him and he resorted to leaping on the floor and tackling Joshua's legs in an ugly and undignified sham of what boxing is supposed to be.
Fortunately, the officials would not stand for it.
"The fans did not pay to see this crap," referee Chris Young said after one of the more egregious grabs from Paul at the end of the fourth.
So in the fifth, Paul started to throw some punches, even landing a couple on the head of Joshua.
The problem was, Joshua started to land some shots of his own.
The first percussive blow rocked Paul to the depths of his vivid red and yellow boots and sent him careering back into the ropes.
That precipitated two knock-downs in the fifth round — etching the writing onto the wall for the game Paul, who took several other shots relatively well, getting up each time and even sticking out his tongue at the Briton.
But in the sixth, Joshua really found his range and a stunning right in the corner knocked Paul down for the fifth and final time to seal the win.
"It wasn't the best performance. It wasn't the best," Joshua said in the ring.
"The end goal was to pin Jake Paul down and hurt him. That has been the request leading up, that was on my mind. It took a bit longer than expected, but the right hand finally found the destination."
Joshua was full of credit for Paul, saying he took his shots well.
But he already turned his attention to a fight that will be more fulfilling to boxing fans.
"If Tyson Fury is as serious as he says he is, and he wants to put down his Twitter fingers and put on some gloves, and come and fight one of the realest fighters out there, step into there with me next if you're a really bad boy," Joshua said, effusive with relief at avoiding the Paul-shaped banana skin in Miami.
On the undercard, Australian fighter Cherneka Johnson retained her IBF, WBC, WBO and WBA bantamweight titles by unanimous decision over Amanda Galle, despite suffering a cut.
Catch up on the action, including three unified women's world title fights on the undercard, in our live blog.
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