Jake Paul announced a fight with no opponent and no confirmed broadcaster, roughly 10 months after Anthony Joshua broke his jaw, and he still ate the entire news cycle. That’s what a great villain does. Nobody else in combat sports can do it right now.
Most Valuable Promotions confirmed Thursday that Paul returns to the ring on Thursday, Dec. 24, in Dubai. It will be his first fight since Joshua landed a right hand in the sixth round last December that broke Paul’s jaw and ended the night. Sherdog, BJPenn.com and MiddleEasy all had the story within hours. Paul wrote on X that “All I want for Christmas Eve is boxing in Dubai,” and the next morning he followed it with “The game’s not over. Christmas Eve in Dubai. Checkmate ♟️” That’s a lot of chess talk for a guy who hasn’t told anybody who’s sitting across the board.
And that’s the point. Paul sold the date before he sold the fight.
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The Press Release Is the Main Event
Read the statement MVP sent out and tell me a traditional promoter writes this. “Merry Christmas, Dubai. Santa Paul is coming to town, and somebody’s getting knocked out.” He also said, “We’ve got plenty of names on the list; let’s see who signs the contract.” Translation: the phone is open, the money is real, and whoever picks up gets a holiday headliner in the Gulf.
There’s even a little self-mythology in there for the haters. “I’ve spent years proving people wrong, taking risks, and pushing myself against opponents nobody thought I’d face,” Paul said. You can roll your eyes, but Joshua was the risk everybody told him not to take, and he took it. He hung in there until the sixth. Then he paid for it with his face. Villains who never take a beating get boring fast. Paul took a real one and came back talking even louder, which is basically the whole Darth Vader arc minus the breathing problems.
As for the opponent, MMA Mania says multiple reports have former UFC contender Darren Till as the most likely choice. Nothing is signed. If it is Till, it’s the lane Paul has been printing money in for years, cherry-picking MMA names fans already know, mixed in with boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. You can call it a soft rebound after Joshua. I call it a guy who understands that a recognizable name and a face-off with some heat moves more tickets than a ranked contender nobody can pick out of a lineup.
The Best Case Against Him
The strongest counterargument is simple: he got knocked out, his jaw got broken, and now Netflix won’t carry his comeback, so the circus is shrinking. Erich Richter of the New York Post reported the fight won’t air on Netflix, and MiddleEasy noted DAZN is a possibility without any confirmed deal. On paper, that looks like a star losing altitude.
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It falls apart once you read why. MMA Mania reported that Netflix boss Ted Sarandos gutted the content department, firing chief content officer Bela Bajaria and head of film Dan Lin after stalled growth reports. Bajaria was MVP co-owner Nakisa Bidarian’s biggest ally inside the company. That’s a corporate bloodbath in Los Gatos. It has nothing to do with whether people will watch Jake Paul try to knock somebody out on Christmas Eve.
And look at the résumé Netflix built with him before the shake-up. Paul vs. Mike Tyson. Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3. Paul vs. Joshua. MVP MMA 1 with Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in May. That’s a promoter’s highlight reel, and the guy at the center of it is a YouTuber people still swear can’t fight.
The Dubai move also reopens a door that looked shut. Turki Alalshikh used his clout to cancel a potential Paul vs. Canelo Alvarez fight in February 2025, which seemed to cut Paul off from Gulf money. MMA Mania reads this Christmas Eve booking as Paul climbing back onto what it called the “Saudi gravy train.” Lose your streaming partner, pivot to the richest region in the sport within the same week. That’s checkmate energy, chess emoji earned.
Meanwhile, the Suits
Compare Paul’s October to the people who are supposed to run this business. Zuffa Boxing signed Shakur Stevenson to a multi-fight deal in July, and he’s already gone. Dana White’s take was “We both agreed we were cool with the release.” Eddie Hearn’s take was “So embarrassing, so humiliating.” Two of the most powerful promoters in combat sports spent the month trading shots over a guy who left, while Paul was announcing a holiday card with a knockout promise attached.
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That’s the humiliation. Old-school promoters need a champion, a mandatory, a sanctioning body and six months of purse bids to get people talking. Paul needs a city, a date and a Santa joke. He doesn’t even need the opponent yet. The opponent will need him.
I’ll take the over on chaos here. My money says Till, or whoever ends up on the list, signs before Thanksgiving, and the first face-off in Dubai turns into the best press conference boxing gets all year. Dec. 24 is circled. Paul made sure of it.
