Alistair Overeem is fighting again. The 44-year-old former Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 heavyweight champion will box Jimi Manuwa on Dec. 24 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, and on Sunday he posted on X that tickets are on sale, telling fans “you need to see this one live.”
The heavyweight bout is scheduled for six rounds on the Jake Paul vs. Cédric Doumbé card. Most Valuable Promotions announced it on Thursday, per MMA Fighting, shortly after Ariel Helwani reported the matchup on X and pointed out that this will be Overeem’s first fight of any kind since October 2022.
That last fight is the awkward part. Overeem beat Badr Hari under the Glory banner, and the result was later overturned to a no-contest after a failed drug test, according to MMA Fighting. He hasn’t competed since. His comeback post leaned hard on the idea of a reinvention, saying he wants “to prove that the second peak is possible” and crediting discipline and recovery for getting him back.
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Overeem also told MMA Fighting he’s “not here to make up the numbers,” and he gave Manuwa real credit for his power. Then he looked past him. “Once I stop Jimi, Rico Verhoeven is next on my hit list,” he said. Verhoeven is a name he has been calling out for a long time. Overeem added that he grew up in the Netherlands but now calls Dubai home, so this one is a hometown show for him, on Christmas Eve no less.
Manuwa isn’t showing up as a tune-up. The Londoner knocked out Chase Sherman in a boxing match at Duel Arena 1 in August, which was his first fight in more than seven years. He said he has watched Overeem since his own early days, wanted this matchup specifically, and promised that “one of us is going to sleep.”
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The rest of the card is stacked. Paul headlines against Doumbé, who had been a rising PFL star before a long layoff, a little over a year after Anthony Joshua broke Paul’s jaw in December 2025. The co-main is a 10-round unified super welterweight title rematch between Chantelle Cameron and Mikaela Mayer, after Cameron took a unanimous decision in August to add the WBC and WBA belts to her WBO strap. U.S. Olympian Jahmal Harvey also faces Scotland’s Craig Morgan at lightweight, looking to move to 6-0. Broadcast details haven’t been announced yet.
My take: I’m in. Two former UFC heavyweights who both hit like freight trains, six rounds, a crowd that’s partly there for Overeem? That’s a fun fight, and it won’t go the distance with both of them still standing and polite about it. The question is what four-plus years away does to a 44-year-old’s timing against a guy who just reminded everyone in August that his right hand still works. Overeem already said Verhoeven’s name out loud. If he walks out of the Coca-Cola Arena on Dec. 24 with his hand raised and his test clean, that callout stops being a fantasy.
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