Former GLORY kickboxing champion Cédric Doumbé faced his toughest career test against Baysangur ‘Baki’ Chamsoudinov in his second appearance as the main event of a PFL Paris card.
At 5-0 coming in, Doumbe is still inexperienced in MMA despite being one of the best kickboxers ever, but at only twenty-two years old, Baki is also inexperienced in his own undefeated, seven-fight MMA career as well. With his wrestling ability, Baki presented a stiff test for Cédric, by far the hardest of his career. However, the same could be said the other way around for Chamsoudinov against Cédric’s striking. The ultimate result of this seemingly binary stylistic matchup was utterly bizarre, as despite the competitive nature of the bout, Baki walked out the winner by TKO after Cédric got a splinter in his foot.
They came out to choruses of, “Baki, tres mort,” a tradition among Doumbé’s fans, meaning ‘you’re dead.’ They exchang jabs with Doumbé inching forward. Baki refusd to throw until the kickboxer opened up with a leg kick, at which point Chamsoudinov caught it and took him down. However, Doumbé used butterflies to push Baki off and get back up. Baki got another takedown and stayed on top for longer, but Doumbé got up again. However this time Baki kept the back body-lock and was able to land a double leg. Cédric got butterfly hooks again, and got up, and went right back down onto his knees from a dump. Bakl again held onto the body-lock but this time Doumbé escaped. The striker stalked the wrestler for the rest of the round but landed naught save for a few jabs. In fact, the last second saw Baki counter with a right hand.
Although Baysangur won the first round, Doumbé showed impressive get-up abilities against a great wrestler, boosting his fans’ cheers. Cédric landed clean with his lead hand a few times, staying composed behind it with both jabs and lead hooks in the start of the second frame. A jab from Doumbé as Baki level changed knocked Baki to his knees for a second, but it was more an off-balancing than a truly damaging shot. Still, Cédric defended the first takedown from Chamsoudinov and maintained the range well with that elite jab. Baki shot a second time and got to the clinch, but Doumbé escaped off the fence. Baki landed with his own excellent jab, but continued to be stuck on the back foot. Doumbé landed his first big right hand off a 1-2 with forty seconds left in the round, and only ramped up his pressure from there but Baki got out of the round.
The score was clear, 19-19, going into the third round. It began with a big right hand from Doumbé and a failed takedown attempt from Baki. The striking gap did not close thereafter. Doumbé paused the fight momentarily and pointed at his toe to Mark Goddard, indicating something which noone could tell. Goddard told him to keep going but Doumbé gestured again, and the referee stopped the fight in response. The crowd erupted in anger and the circumstances were sketchy.
Doumbé went to show the referee something in his toe, possibly a sliver of wood or glass. Baki won the fight by TKO, but after Doumbé explained to the audience the circumstances, there would be no doubt a rematch would come next. He called for one, and Baki’s team accepted there in the cage, though he asked for a bigger stadium and more money for the second fight. The two fighters embraced after and showed their friendship, with Cédric stating that him and Baki are brother in Islam.
Official Result: Baysangur ‘Baki’ Chamsoudinov def. Cédric Doumbé by TKO (injury)
