Alistair Overeem to make pro boxing debut against Jimi Manuwa in Dubai on Dec. 24

Alistair Overeem will make his professional boxing debut against fellow UFC veteran Jimi Manuwa on Thursday, Dec. 24, in Dubai. Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) announced the six-round heavyweight bout on Thursday. It goes on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Cedric Doumbé at Coca-Cola Arena.

Both men are 46. It will be Overeem's first fight in any combat sport since October 2022, per Fightful. Manuwa is not a debutant, although ESPN described it that way. MVP lists him at 1-0 after he stopped former UFC heavyweight Chase Sherman in the second round in Orlando in August.

What they said

Overeem, who now lives in Dubai, set out his aims in MVP's release:

"Now I'm starting a new chapter in boxing, and I'm not here to make up the numbers."

He called Manuwa "a dangerous man with serious knockout power." Manuwa said that after his win in Orlando he "wasn't looking for an easy opponent." He also made a prediction, per Sherdog: "On Christmas Eve, one of us is going to sleep, and it's not going to be me."

MVP CEO Nakisa Bidarian called Overeem "one of the most decorated heavyweights in history."

Where they come from

Overeem is 47-19 in MMA, per our fighter page, plus one no contest; 25 of his wins came by knockout, per Wikipedia. He held the Strikeforce and DREAM heavyweight titles and won the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix. In the UFC he went 12-8, beating Brock Lesnar, Junior dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir and Mark Hunt. He lost his one UFC title shot to Stipe Miocic at UFC 203 in September 2016.

His UFC run ended with a second-round TKO loss to Alexander Volkov on Feb. 6, 2021. He opened that fight a -125 favourite and closed a +183 underdog, a 35% chance by the closing line, as our fight page shows. The UFC released him the next month. His last bout was a kickboxing decision over Badr Hari in October 2022. It was changed to a no contest after he tested positive for a banned substance.

Manuwa is 17-6 in MMA, per his page, with 15 wins by knockout, according to Sherdog. He started 14-0, three of those wins in the UFC, and finished 6-6 in the promotion at light heavyweight. His best UFC wins were knockouts of Corey Anderson and Ovince Saint Preux and a decision over future champion Jan Blachowicz. He retired in June 2019 after four straight losses, the last a 47-second knockout by Aleksandar Rakic.

His boxing win over Sherman was not a clean one. Sherman took the fight on less than 10 days' notice, per mmasucka. Manuwa dropped him in the first round, then was dropped himself in the second, mmasucka reported. He finished it later that round.

The two have never met. All of Manuwa's UFC fights predate our odds records, and this boxing match has no odds on our site.

We lean Manuwa, and durability is the reason. All eight of Overeem's UFC losses came by knockout, and he hasn't fought in four years. His K-1 title is 16 years old and came in kickboxing, not boxing. Manuwa hits hard, though a short-notice replacement put him down in August.

What's next

Tickets go on sale on Sunday, Nov. 15, after a presale on Saturday, according to MVP. No broadcaster has been announced; Cageside Press reported on Nov. 2 that there was no deal yet.

The main event is an eight-round cruiserweight bout. It will be Paul's first fight since Anthony Joshua knocked him out last December and broke his jaw. Doumbé is a two-time Glory welterweight kickboxing champion who is 6-1 in MMA and 1-0 as a boxer.

For Overeem, it is a fight in his adopted home. In an Oct. 30 interview with Gulf News, he said he hoped to debut on the Dec. 11 Joshua vs. Tyson Fury card in Cardiff. He landed on MVP's card instead. "I feel like I can do something beautiful in boxing," he told the paper.