At the time of the announcement of the Jake Paul-Anthony Joshua heavyweight fight, Paul’s critics were calling for Joshua, a former two-time unified heavyweight champion, to end the social media personality-turned-boxer’s boxing career. Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain’s eminent, oft-misquoted line: “The reports of Jake Paul’s death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Paul was outclassed, fell four times and knocked out in the sixth round by Joshua during Friday’s fight in Miami. It wasn’t pretty as Paul kept circling and clinching, but Joshua finally caught up with the tiring Paul with a stunning straight right hand that ended the fight and, according to Paul, broke his jaw.

Immediately afterwards, Paul’s skeptics celebrated that what they called a farce was over. However, after the defeat, Paul made it clear that his boxing career would continue.

“I’m going to come back and fight people my weight and at some point win the world cruiserweight championship,” Paul said. “I’m going to take a little break. I’ve been training challenging for six years, so I’m going to take some time off.”

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, believes Paul’s boxing career should continue if that is what he wants.

“Hats off to Jake,” Hearn told ESPN after the fight. “It’s really challenging to get back up after a broken jaw, but that last shot AJ hit him with would have knocked out a lot of heavyweights. He went down challenging, but he was conscious on the floor. It was a one-sided fight – it was always going to be a one-sided fight – but you can’t give him anything but appreciation and respect.”

Joshua, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Great Britain, also commented on Paul’s future.

“America, I think you have someone who could potentially come back, dust himself off and come back sometime in 2026. Maybe against Gervonta Davis or Ryan Garcia, who knows?”

So there it is. The Jake Paul Boxing Show isn’t over yet. But the question is: where does he go from here?

The next chapter of Paul’s career will be the hardest to understand for Paul, who will turn 29 in January. Up to this point, he had done quite well in his career, combining business with entertainment. He chose the right opponents, those with enough skill to compete. However, if he wants to be taken seriously after 14 professional fights, he can’t go back and fight another MMA fighter after stepping into the ring with the former two-time heavyweight champion. He also cannot risk defeat against another opponent who has much more experience than him.

Paul has regularly hinted that he wants to fight for the cruiserweight world title, but the list of champions he would have to choose to achieve that goal poses some problems. Neither IBF champion Jai Opetaia, WBO and WBA champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, nor WBC’s Noel Mikaelian are household names who will do gigantic business with him, and all of them are champions for a reason. On the other hand, it will be increasingly challenging for Paul to attract fans to another fight against someone who is either much older, not a full-time boxer, or is undersized.

When Paul decides to return, you can be sure he will receive just as much, if not more, attention. His next move will create ripples, positive or negative. What he did by stepping into the ring with a brutal performer like Joshua is proof that he has the heart, fortitude and determination to compete. However, there are levels of competition and he was vastly outmatched and outclassed. There will be questions about his game plan of cruising around the ring reluctant to throw punches. For a showman like Paul, this strategy was not fun at all, a 180 degree difference from his previous fights.

He took several edged shots from the former heavyweight champion and not only lasted over five rounds, but continued to walk out of the ring until, according to Paul’s social media post, his jaw was broken in two places. He could get over it after the first knockdown, but he didn’t want to stay on the canvas. In his desperate attempts to survive, he was barely able to stay upright and dived for clinches that turned into takedowns. But that’s what happens when you go beyond your depth. You will drown.

His critics will continue to voice their complaints, but they will likely remain reluctant to see the next phase of Paul’s career. His fans will drool over his every move and continue to cheer the unlikely rise of an influential fighter who has chosen to pursue a side hustle in boxing and an extremely lucrative gig. Everyone in between may be curious as to when his next fight will be announced, depending on the opponent.

Paul is gigantic business and there will always be room for someone who is as drawn to sports as he is.

Ultimately, it will be up to Paul to decide whether he is willing to sacrifice business to advance his goal of a world title shot, or whether he will accept an invitation to another so-called “circus fight” against a smaller fighter like Ryan Garcia or Gervonta “Tank” Davis. Either way, Paul has a choice, and the journey he’s on is now entering its next phase.