Alistair Overeem Will Box for the First Time at 46 on Jake Paul’s Christmas Eve Card: What It Means
Alistair Overeem will make his professional boxing debut on Christmas Eve at 46 years old. Most Valuable Promotions announced the bout Thursday at a press conference in Dubai: six rounds at heavyweight against Jimi Manuwa, as the co-main event under Jake Paul and Cedric Doumbe at Coca-Cola Arena.
Overeem has not competed in anything since Oct. 8, 2022. That is a layoff of roughly four years and two months, and the last one did not end well.
What Overeem Is Coming Back From
His final appearance was a kickboxing bout against Badr Hari at GLORY: Collision 4. He won a unanimous decision, then the result was overturned to a no contest after a positive PED test, and GLORY suspended him 12 months. His last MMA fight was a second-round TKO loss to Alexander Volkov in February 2021, and the UFC announced his release a month later.
He never formally retired. The closest he came was a 2023 remark on a Dubai television show: “I actually just decided to stop fighting, it’s not my thing anymore.”
The resume behind the comeback is enormous. Overeem is 47-19 with one no contest in MMA and 10-4 with one no contest in kickboxing. He was the inaugural Strikeforce heavyweight champion, won the K-1 World Grand Prix in 2010, and held a DREAM heavyweight belt. He stopped Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut and owns wins over Fabricio Werdum, Junior dos Santos and Frank Mir. He lost his one UFC title shot to Stipe Miocic in 2016.
His professional boxing record is 0-0.
Manuwa Is Not a Tune-Up
Jimi Manuwa is 46 and 17-6 in MMA with 15 knockouts. He went 6-6 in the UFC with five knockout wins, beat Jan Blachowicz, Corey Anderson and Ovince Saint Preux, then finished his MMA run on a four-fight losing streak before stepping away in 2019.
He is already 1-0 as a pro boxer, having stopped former UFC heavyweight Chase Sherman in the second round in Orlando this August. Some outlets have written this up as a double debut. It is only Overeem’s.
“After my win in Orlando, I wasn’t looking for an easy opponent,” Manuwa said in the announcement. “On Christmas Eve, one of us is going to sleep, and it’s not going to be me.”
Overeem’s reply was shorter. “Jimi had better be ready, because I’m coming to put on a show.”
What It Means
MVP is building this card on name recognition and knockout power. CEO Nakisa Bidarian pointed out that the two men bring a combined 40 MMA knockouts into the ring, which is the pitch in a single number. The other number is their combined age of 92.
Overeem’s power was always real and his chin was always the question. He was stopped repeatedly in MMA by heavyweights with a fraction of his credentials. Boxing gloves stretch fights out and give a 46-year-old more time to get hit by a man whose entire career is built on hitting people.
No broadcaster has been announced, and no sanctioning body has been named in any release. Tickets go on sale this weekend through Coca-Cola Arena.
Overeem reportedly wants Rico Verhoeven next. Beating Manuwa first would turn that into a conversation instead of a press release, and Manuwa has knocked out better boxers than Overeem has ever faced.
Christmas Eve in Dubai, with one of the most decorated heavyweights in combat sports history starting over in a sport he has never been paid to practice. Whatever this is, it is not boring.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
