Jake Paul and Cedric Doumbe are about to stand nose to nose twice in three days. Most Valuable Promotions announced on X on Monday that the two will face off at a pair of press conferences this week, one in Paris and one in Dubai. Both are free and open to the public.
Paris goes first on Tuesday, November 10 at 6 p.m. CET (12 p.m. EST). Dubai follows on Thursday, November 12 at 6 p.m. GST (9 a.m. EST). MVP says both will stream live on the MVP and PFL YouTube channels. The fight itself is set for Thursday, December 24, at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. Yes, Christmas Eve. Santa’s getting a co-main.
The Dubai stop is doing double duty. PFL posted on X last week that the Paul vs. Doumbe presser and the PFL Dubai press conference are both happening Thursday at the New Convent Garden Theatre, ahead of PFL Dubai on Saturday, November 14, at the same Coca-Cola Arena that hosts Paul and Doumbe six weeks later. So if you’re in town that week, you can catch two pressers and a fight card without leaving the same few blocks.
View post on X
The context
This fight has caught some skepticism. In MMA Mania’s mailbag last Friday, a reader called Doumbe undersized with minimal boxing experience and asked whether the Paul act had run its course, pointing to news that the fight wouldn’t be on Netflix. Mania’s Alex Behunin said that, per reports, Netflix is restructuring its live boxing and sports events and Paul vs. Doumbe wasn’t big enough for it. Jesse Holland wrote that the streaming partner would reveal Paul’s market value these days, adding: “Landing on DAZN would be a considerable step down after Netflix.”
Not everyone is writing Doumbe off. Andrew Richardson wrote, “I still see a reasonable chance that Doumbe shuts his lights off, the guy can strike,” and Thomas Myers agreed that Doumbe isn’t terrible on the feet. Myers was less kind to the matchmaking, though. His verdict on the Paul novelty: “Yes, the novelty is cooked.”
Paul’s name keeps popping up elsewhere too. According to MMA Junkie, UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland has floated vacating his belt and quickly finishing his contract at light heavyweight so he could box Paul. Dana White, meanwhile, brought up how Mike Tyson looked against Paul while explaining to All Out Fighting why nobody should want to see him box Eddie Hearn.
View post on X
My take
I’ll be watching Tuesday at noon, because free pressers are the one Jake Paul product I can endorse without reading the fine print. No ticket fee, no paywall, just two guys and a podium. Promotions should do this more. Still, this whole thing lives or dies on the face-off. Paul is great at a microphone, and if Doumbe walks in quiet and polite, this becomes the kind of manufactured beef that falls apart the second the cameras roll. I want shoving in Paris. I’ll settle for a good insult. And somebody at MVP needs to tell us where the fight is actually streaming before Thursday’s presser in Dubai, because December 24 is closer than it looks.
