Only one fight into his PFL career, Cedric Doumbe is already a bona fide star. The Frenchman of Cameroonian origin knocked out his opponent Jordan Zebo in nine seconds on his PFL debut in his hometown of Paris last September.

In attendance at the packed AccorHotels Arena was French soccer phenom and Doumbe’s friend Kylian Mbappe, who was seen marveling at the spectacular knockout. Fellow PFL fighter and light heavyweight champion Alex O’Connell pointed to two important reasons behind the Frenchman’s popularity in an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports.

O’Connell thinks being French behind Cedric Doumbe’s popularity

After an illustrious kickboxing career in Glory, where he was a two-time welterweight champion, Doumbe made his transition to MMA in 2021. Given his striking and kickboxing pedigree, he was signed by the UFC and was scheduled to fight Darian Weeks in Paris back in October, 2020.

However, the French commission refused to sanction the fight due to the differential in the two fighters’ total MMA fights. Doumbe would later reveal that an MRI scan had revealed blood in his brain. He was released by the UFC soon after. In 2023, Doumbe announced that he was joining the PFL and won his first fight by knockout.

On being asked his opinion on Doumbe’s popularity, light heavyweight champion Sean O’Connell felt that he had the whole of France is behind him, which gave him a significant fan base to start with. “International fighters like Doumbe always have a greater potential for capturing a huge audience because the world of MMA is so saturated with American athletes. When a star rises from a smaller country like Australia, Ireland, or France in this case, they benefit from the fierce national pride of their fans AND still have appeal for the broader audience centered in America,” O’Connell told ES.

O’Connell stated that a global sports superstar like Kylian Mbappe being a fan showed just how special Doumbe was and this, he felt, gave the Frenchman’s popularity a further boost. “The fact that Kylian Mbappe is a fan of Cedric serves to legitimize him in the eyes of all sports fans. Mbappe is a true global superstar, and he still loves to see Doumbe fight. Only the rarest combat sports athletes draw the attention of the mainstream sports stars. Doumbe is on his way to being very special in the MMA space after conquering kickboxing,” he added.

Doumbe not looking to go back to the UFC

Although he was released by the UFC, the most popular MMA promotion in the world, Doumbe did not let it dampen his spirits. After his triumphant PFL debut, the Frenchman was asked what he thought about his unceremonious UFC exit. The 31-year-old felt that the UFC lost out and made clear that he was happy in the PFL and was not looking to “open the UFC door again.”

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“They [the UFC] f*cked up, but I didn’t lose anything. They lost. So it is what it is, you know? Everything happens for a reason. I’m just doing my thing. I know I would do the same, maybe even better, maybe less in UFC, but I’m just doing my thing. Some people say that, ‘You will never have done that (walkout) with the mattress in UFC. They will never let you do this.’ So I’m better here (in PFL),” he said. What do you think about Doumbe’s comments.

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