Jake Paul returns on 24 December to face Cedric Doumbe in Dubai
Jake Paul will return to the ring on 24 December, when he faces Cedric Doumbe at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. It is Paul's first fight since he lost to Anthony Joshua last December.
Paul announced the date in late October. He said he is "hungrier than ever" and that the Dubai bout will start the next chapter of his career.
The fight is scheduled for eight rounds at cruiserweight, the division for fighters up to 200 pounds (about 90.7kg). It will be a professionally sanctioned bout, which means an official boxing body oversees the contest. Both fighters will wear 10-ounce gloves, a measure of how heavy each glove is.
Paul's record stands at 12 wins from 14 professional fights. His two defeats came against Tommy Fury and Joshua. Joshua knocked Paul down twice before stopping him in the sixth round. The BBC reports that Paul had two titanium plates fitted and some teeth removed after Joshua broke his jaw.
Doumbe comes to the fight from a different path. He was born in Cameroon and represents France, and he built his reputation as a multi-time kickboxing world champion. Kickboxing mixes punches and kicks, and it is a different sport from boxing, which uses only punches. He has since moved into mixed martial arts (MMA), a sport that allows strikes, wrestling and grappling on the ground.
Doumbe has had one professional boxing bout, a win in 2015. He joined the Professional Fighters League (PFL), an MMA promotion, in 2023. Since then he has won two of his three fights. He has also called out Paul before, though that was in earlier comments, not in connection with this fight.
For a casual fan, the story is simple. Paul is returning from a serious jaw injury and a heavy defeat, and he is stepping into the ring against a fighter whose main experience is in kickboxing and MMA. Paul's boxing record is the longer one, and that will shape how the bout is read. Doumbe's win in his only pro boxing bout came more than a decade ago, so the two men come in with very different recent records.
Dubai has become a regular home for big-name bouts, and the timing sits at the end of the year, when many fight fans are looking for something to watch over the holidays. Paul's camp and Doumbe's team will now have about seven weeks to prepare. Eight rounds is a shorter distance than the twelve-round world title fights of the past, which means a fighter can win by stopping an opponent early, or by taking a decision on the scorecards if the fight goes the distance.
Whatever happens on 24 December, the result will tell fans a good deal about where both careers go next.
