Jake Paul Doumbe fight set for 24 December, a year after Joshua broke his jaw

The Jake Paul Doumbe fight is official: the YouTuber-turned-boxer will return to the ring on Christmas Eve in Dubai, just over a year after Anthony Joshua broke his jaw and stopped him in Miami. Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) announced the matchup on Monday, confirming a professionally sanctioned eight-round cruiserweight contest at the Coca-Cola Arena.

The Jake Paul Doumbe fight: what we know

The bout will be fought at 200 pounds with 10oz gloves. It will be Paul’s first professional fight in Dubai and his first outing since the sixth-round stoppage by Joshua on 19 December 2025. Paul, 29, was knocked down twice in that fight. He has said he needed two titanium plates and the removal of some teeth. Reports describe the jaw as broken in two places.

His opponent is Cedric Doumbe, a 34-year-old Cameroon-born Frenchman. Doumbe twice held the Glory welterweight kickboxing title and now competes in MMA for the Professional Fighters League (PFL). Source figures put his kickboxing record at 75-7-1. He announced himself in the PFL with a nine-second knockout of Jordan Zebo in September 2023.

MVP merged with the PFL in July, so the pairing keeps the business in the family. Paul’s promotion is matching its own headline name against a fighter from a company it is now tied to.

A comeback that medical advice did not endorse

The return looked far from certain. In May, Paul said his boxing career was “most definitely” in doubt after the injury. The Independent reports that he is going ahead despite medical advice, following multiple surgeries on the damaged jaw. The sources do not say what the advice was or who gave it, but the framing makes clear this is a risk he is choosing to take.

Paul’s own words leaned into the injury rather than away from it. “I’m rusty, my jaw is janky, and I don’t have kickboxing world titles like you do,” he said in an MVP statement. “But guess what, this isn’t kickboxing mon ami. This is boxing.”

Doumbe’s boxing inexperience and the weight question

That jab points at the central tension in the matchup. Doumbe’s résumé is impressive, but it comes from other disciplines. The BBC says he has just one professional boxing bout, a win in 2015, and the Independent calls this his second. The Jake Paul Doumbe fight is therefore a test of whether striking pedigree translates under boxing rules.

Weight adds another variable. Doumbe predominantly competes at 170lb, so the 200lb limit asks him to fight well above his usual division. Paul has fought mostly at cruiserweight since turning professional in 2020.

Doumbe’s answer was blunt. “I’m going to finish the job Joshua started,” he said, promising to hand Paul another knockout defeat.

What Paul needs from Dubai

Paul’s record stands at 12-2, with seven knockouts. His only defeats came against Tommy Fury and Joshua. His wins include Mike Tyson in 2024, when Tyson was 58, and former world champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in July 2025. The Chavez win earned Paul a place in the WBA cruiserweight rankings, but he lost it after the Joshua defeat.

A win over Doumbe would not by itself restore that ranking or settle questions about the jaw. It would show he can take punches again after a serious injury and a heavy knockout. A loss, against a fighter with so little boxing experience, would do more damage to his credibility than the Joshua defeat did, since Joshua is a two-time heavyweight world champion.

The build-up starts soon. MVP has scheduled press conferences in Paris on 10 November and in Dubai on 12 November.

File photo: Jake Paul (53116882732).jpg by Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.