Jake Paul’s Christmas Eve Opponent Has One Pro Boxing Fight, and It Was in 2015
Most Valuable Promotions announced Monday that Jake Paul will return to the ring on Christmas Eve in Dubai against Cedric Doumbe. ESPN reported the terms: eight rounds, cruiserweight, a 200-pound limit, 10-ounce gloves, professionally sanctioned.
Doumbe is a two-time GLORY welterweight kickboxing champion with a 75-7-1 kickboxing record and 45 knockouts. He is also 1-0 as a professional boxer, and that single fight was in April 2015.
Eleven years between pro boxing appearances is the entire story of this matchup.
What Paul is coming back from
Paul has not fought since December 19, 2025, when Anthony Joshua knocked him out in the sixth round of a heavyweight bout and broke his jaw. ESPN reported he needed additional jaw surgery in December and again in February. He is 29 and 12-2 with seven knockouts.
“This Christmas Eve, Jake Paul returns to the ring after a year of uncertainty about his jaw and boxing career,” MVP’s Nakisa Bidarian said in the release.
Paul’s own framing was characteristically unbothered. “I’m rusty, my jaw is janky and I don’t have kickboxing world titles like you do,” he said. “This isn’t kickboxing mon ami. This is BOXING.”
He is right about that last part, which is exactly the problem with the booking.
Doumbe is a real fighter in a different sport
Doumbe is 34, French, and one of the most recognizable combat sports figures in his country. His kickboxing record is excellent. His MMA record is 6-1, including a nine-second knockout of Jordan Zebo under the PFL banner in September 2023 and a first-round TKO of Jaleel Willis at Bellator Champions Series 2 in May 2024.
That May 2024 fight was roughly two and a half years ago. Cageside Press notes he has been inactive since.
Then there is the size. Doumbe competes at welterweight in MMA, a 170-pound division, and won his GLORY titles at welterweight. This fight is contracted at 200. Nobody has said what either man will actually weigh on fight night, and the gap between a welterweight kickboxer and a cruiserweight limit is a lot of room to fill.
Doumbe is selling it anyway. “Jake Paul calls himself the Problem Child, but he’s never faced a problem like me,” he said. “I’m going to finish the job Joshua started.”
Darren Till was the guy, and then he was not
On October 29, when MVP announced the December 24 date without an opponent, Darren Till was widely reported as the leading candidate. Paul’s comment at the time was a shrug: “We’ve got plenty of names on the list; let’s see who signs the contract.”
Till did not sign it. No reason has been given publicly by MVP, by Till or by anyone else, and the reporting since Monday has been limited to Till criticizing the choice. If there was a contract dispute, a scheduling conflict or a money problem, nobody involved has said so, and it is worth being clear that none of that has been established.
Paul posted a 14-name wish list on X on October 7 that included Canelo Alvarez, Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor, Deontay Wilder, Tom Aspinall and “World Title.” Boxing News reports he still says he wants to fight for a real world championship. Doumbe was not on the list.
What this actually is
It is a comeback fight, and judged as one it makes sense. Paul had his jaw broken 11 months ago by a former unified heavyweight champion. Bidarian got him cleared in early October. You do not come back from that against a live cruiserweight, and Big Fight Weekend’s read, via Boxing News, is that this is a sensible soft landing with Paul winning a decision.
The honest version is that Paul is boxing a 34-year-old kickboxer who last boxed professionally in 2015, on a date nobody else wanted, in a market that paid to host it. Dubai’s Sports Council and its Department of Economy and Tourism signed a cooperation agreement with MVP alongside the announcement.
Press conferences are set for Paris on November 10 and Dubai on November 12. No broadcaster has been announced, which for a Paul event is the one detail actually worth waiting on.
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.
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