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Who Is Cedric Doumbe? The Knockout Artist Who Left Kylian Mbappe Speechless
Jake Paul is sharing a ring with someone who needed nine seconds to leave Kylian Mbappe staring in disbelief: Cedric Doumbe, the kickboxing champion whose punching power followed him into MMA. Their December 24, 2026, fight at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena is scheduled for eight rounds at cruiserweight, with a 200-pound limit and 10-ounce gloves.
Doumbe, 34, is a Cameroonian-born French fighter who switched from kickboxing to MMA in 2021. Nicknamed “The Best,” he arrives with 75 kickboxing victories and 45 knockouts, plus six wins from seven MMA appearances, every victory ending by KO or TKO.
Who Is Cedric Doumbe? Meet Jake Paul’s Next Opponent and His Knockout Record
His kickboxing reputation was built against championship opposition, starting with a split-decision victory over Nieky Holzken in December 2016 that made him GLORY’s first French champion. After two successful defenses and a title loss to Murthel Groenhart, Doumbe became champion again in March 2019 by dropping Harut Grigorian three times in the second round.
The pound-for-pound reputation has receipts: Combat Press ranked him fifth worldwide and first at welterweight in February 2021, following his knockout of Groenhart at GLORY 77. That win completed the third defense of his second reign, putting him on five successful defenses across both championship runs.
MMA opponents soon got acquainted with those hands, beginning with Arbi Emiev in November 2021 and continuing through stoppages of Phruethukorn Chaichongcharden, Florent Burillon and Pawel Klimas. Doumbe was 4-0 before joining PFL in 2023, where his debut against Jordan Zebo turned into the clip that introduced him to another audience.
For that September 30 fight in Paris, Doumbe walked in carrying a mattress and pillow, then countered Zebo’s attempted high kick and finished him with punches in nine seconds. Mbappe watched cageside with his mouth open, then posted “WOW CÉDRIC DOUMBÉ !!!!” afterward.
His only MMA defeat came against Baysangur “Baki” Chamsoudinov in March 2024, when complaints about something lodged in his toe preceded a third-round injury stoppage; Doumbe later said it was glass. He rebounded that May by stopping Jaleel Willis at 3:33 of the first round in his Bellator debut, his most recent MMA appearance.
Boxing is the least-tested part of his record: his lone professional appearance was a points win over Mohamed Fodil in 2015. His pitch for beating Paul is considerably shorter than his résumé: “I just need one punch. I did it 45 times before.”