Hearn Says Loss To Jake Paul Means ‘We All Retire’

Promoter Eddie Hearn says if he’s wrong about Anthony Joshua whitewashing YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, “we should all retire.”

Hearn is putting a lot of pressure on Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) to defeat the ambitious go-getter Jake Paul (12-1, 7 KOs). The two are fighting on December 19th in an eight-round fight at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.

The Matchroom promoter Hearn has told the media repeatedly that Paul, 28, has no chance in this fight. He says he’s not anywhere near the level of the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua.

“Maybe I’m wrong. If I’m wrong, I think my time’s up. Not just AJ and me retire, I think we should all retire. So, AJ, the weight of boxing is on your shoulders, my man,” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to Sky Sports about Anthony Joshua’s fight with Jake Paul.

Will Hearn retire along with Joshua if things go sour for him on December 19th? It’s going to be difficult for AJ to continue his career if Jake destroys him. How do you rebuild from that? It wouldn’t make sense for Hearn to put Joshua through a four-fight rebuild as he did after his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022. AJ going into another four-day ‘Darkness retreat’ as he did on October 16, 2023, wouldn’t be the answer.

But we all saw what happened to AJ last time he fought, when Daniel Dubois completely vaporized him in five painful-to-watch fights in September 2024. Joshua was reduced to fumes by Dubois when he nailed him with a nuclear-powered right hand in the fifth.

Before the round started, Anthony had been told by his trainer, “Roll the dice.” In hindsight, that was the wrong thing to say to an aging fighter with countless hard miles on the odometer.