Jake Paul’s jaw got absolutely shattered by Anthony Joshua last December in a brutal loss. Now, guess who he’s got lined up for Christmas Eve? A kickboxer named Cédric Doumbé. For a guy whose entire combat sports journey has been about increasingly dangerous escalations, from internet renegade to self-proclaimed legitimate boxer, this Doumbé fight feels different. It feels almost… normal. After the “charade” finally ended with Joshua, this new matchup feels like the first real sign of sobriety after a six-year wild ride.
The Audacity That Defined a Career
Paul built his entire brand on a series of “double-dog dares” disguised as boxing matches. He started dipping his toes in with a pro athlete, Nate Robinson, back in 2020, seemingly “for clicks and giggles.” But then he kept outdoing himself. Next up was pro fighter Ben Askren, a “clumsy-handed wrestler” who was coming off hip replacement surgery. When that was done, Paul squared off against Askren’s “heavier-handed Mizzou teammate,” former UFC champion Tyron Woodley, and he did it twice.
Then came the legendary 47-year-old former UFC GOAT, Anderson Silva, who Joe Rogan once said showcased a “ballet of violence” a hundred years earlier. People were screaming for Paul, this interloper calling himself the new face of boxing, to fight an actual boxer. So, he technically fought one: Tommy Fury, Tyson’s brother. That “unholy (and completely forgettable) affair” handed Paul his first loss. What did he do? He pivoted right back to boxing popular MMA fighters, taking on Nate Diaz, who was described as being on “cloven hooves.” To build up his résumé, he then stepped in the ring with a couple of “woodwork randos,” Andre August and Ryan Bourland. Then Mike Perry, a reformed MMA fighter and the face of bare-knuckle boxing, in what was called a “fun one.”
The Joshua Reckoning
The “escalation of audacity” continued with the big-time Netflix bout against 57-year-old Mike Tyson. That one wasn’t “fun,” but it did hit an insane 65 million concurrent streams. Paul, in his mind, showed the world he wasn’t afraid of “The Baddest Man on the Planet,” or, let’s be real, “streaming elderly abuse.” Once that dust settled, he went up against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., son of the legend and a former WBC middleweight title holder a decade prior. Paul won a unanimous decision.
But people were ready to be shaken awake from the snooze Paul’s latest run had caused. The announcement that he’d fight Gervonta “Tank” Davis, a “beleaguered mite-sized dynamo” who would “circle Paul like an electron,” definitely did the trick. The initial faceoffs were “hilarious,” but “much bellyaching from the public” and more legal issues for Davis forced Paul to pivot again. And that’s when it happened: he agreed to fight the exact type of boxer everyone wanted to see him face. He stepped into the ring with Anthony Joshua, a heavyweight who was bigger than Paul, more experienced, less than 50 years old, and definitely “not washed up.”
The result? Joshua shattered Paul’s jaw in a brutal loss in December 2025. Paul hasn’t fought since that crushing defeat. This Cédric Doumbé fight for Christmas Eve? It’s a kickboxer. It feels “too normal” to win the Paul sweepstakes, especially after everything that led up to Joshua. It might be the first real sign he’s done with the “six-year bender” of ridiculous matchups.
Paul hasn’t fought since that December 2025 loss to Joshua. Now, his next test against Doumbé on Christmas Eve will show us if he’s truly back to “what he knows best,” or if the shattered jaw was the final bell for his brand of dramatic escalations.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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