Jake Paul has his Christmas Eve dance partner, and it’s PFL welterweight Cedric Doumbe. BoxingScene listed the boxing match between the two, and MMA Fighting’s Between the Links crew discussed Paul landing Doumbe as his opponent for the December 24 date this week. Doumbe didn’t wait long to start selling it. He posted on X on November 4: “JAKE PAUL, GET READY FOR YOUR FUNERAL.” He followed that with “The countdown has begun…” and enough hashtags to fill a fight poster.
Paul upped the stakes on his end, too. MMA Fighting’s Morning Report flagged that Paul said he’ll “hang up the gloves” if Doumbe beats him. That’s a big promise from a guy whose whole business model is the next fight. I’ll believe it when I see the gloves on a hook.
Till got left on the porch
The guy who lost out here is Darren Till. According to MMA Fighting, the former UFC title challenger was in talks to face Paul until Paul went with Doumbe for his return to boxing. Till isn’t exactly idle. He’s 2-0 under the BKFC banner on a three-fight deal, and BKFC president David Feldman told MMA Fighting the promotion holds options on his next few fights and plans a longer relationship with him.
View post on X
Feldman sounded like he’d have been fine letting Till take the Paul fight in December, the same way BKFC let Mike Perry book his own boxing match with Paul. He framed it as a timing question. If BKFC had to sit Till for eight or nine months, Feldman said, it’s only fair to let him go get paid. He also made his own pick on the matchup that never happened: “I think that Darren Till can hang in there with Jake Paul, has a very good chance of beating him as well so I think it could raise his profile a lot and he has a chance to make a lot of money.”
Instead, Feldman is teasing a big name for Till, possibly in a Liverpool soccer stadium, with an announcement promised in the next couple of weeks. BKFC 100 and the next KnuckleMania are on deck for 2027.
Paul’s been busy online
Paul spent part of fight-announcement week picking at Dana White’s matchmaking. After Deontay Wilder vs. Jai Opetaia was announced for the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua undercard, Paul wrote on X that Opetaia is 31-0 and a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter, while Wilder is 41 and has been knocked out in four of his last seven fights. That’s a fair point about the best fighting the best, made by a man who just picked his own Christmas Eve opponent.
The Morning Report also floated a theory that Conor McGregor ends up boxing Paul before he ever takes a bare knuckle fight. McGregor has one UFC fight left after blowing out his knee against Max Holloway at UFC 329 and isn’t expected back until next summer. That’s a 2027 problem.
Sal’s take: The retirement pledge is the part I’d ignore. Fighters promise to walk away all the time, and the ones with a pay-per-view machine behind them rarely mean it. What interests me is the choice. Paul had a willing Till, whose own promoter thinks he wins, and went another direction. Matchmakers usually pick the opponent they like the look of. Once a line posts, I want to see how far the books lean toward Paul and whether the early money pushes back toward Doumbe. If the PFL man opens as a fat underdog, that’s the number I’ll be staring at until December 24.
