Jake Paul says he'll retire from boxing if he loses his next fight against Cedric Doumbe.
Paul is scheduled to return to the ring opposite Doumbe, an MMA fighter and former kickboxing champion, on Dec. 24 in Dubai. It will mark Paul's first appearance since he suffered a broken jaw in a knockout loss to former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua last December.
"If (Doumbe) wins, I will hang up the gloves and call it a day," Paul said in a video posted Tuesday on his YouTube channel. "But if he loses, the man who calls himself the best just got beat up by a YouTuber with a titanium jaw."
Paul vowed to knock out and "embarrass" Doumbe when they meet in the ring.
"This fight is not going the distance," Paul said. "Someone is getting put to sleep in the Middle East, and it's not Santa."
Paul was medically cleared to fight in October after recovering from his broken jaw, a lengthy process that included two surgeries. Paul said he even contemplated retiring from the sport.
"A part of me thought about quitting and never boxing again," Paul said. "(Joshua) broke my jaw. I have two titanium plates in my mouth. I couldn't eat for weeks. I couldn't even talk or smile at my bank statements. And I was just laying in bed, night after night, asking myself, 'Do I still want to do this?' Yeah, obviously I still want to do this. I ain't no b---h."
Paul carries a 12-2 record into the fight against Doumbe. He had won six in a row - including victories over Mike Tyson, Nate Diaz, and Mike Perry - before suffering the first knockout loss of his career against Joshua.
Doumbe holds a 6-1 record in MMA and fought three times under the PFL banner from 2023-24. However, the 34-year-old Frenchman is best known for his iconic kickboxing career that ended in 2021. He's a former two-time GLORY Kickboxing welterweight champion and produced a 63-7-1 record.
