This past Saturday at PFL Europe 3, Cédric Doumbé (5-0) made his highly anticipated debut. The Glory Kickboxing world champion was one of the hotter free agents on the market this year. The UFC was after him, but he opted to sign with the PFL after they offered him a deal that was supposedly ten times what was being offered from the UFC. This past weekend, he made his debut.
The crowd was juiced as Doumbé made his walk to the ring carrying a mattress to signal what was potentially coming for his opponent. There was so much intrigue with his debut. Personally, I was curious to see if there would be any jitters ahead of his big moment on the MMA stage. Turns out, we didn’t have to wait very long to find out just how dangerous Doumbé is.
In the opening seconds, Doumbé worked his way inside and landed massive hooks on his opponent Jordan Zebo. Zebo went crashing to the canvas and he was out. The official time was nine seconds as Doumbé celebrated a knockout of the year candidate in his first fight with the PFL.
PFL’s New Star
It wasn’t just the fact that Doumbé knocked out his opponent, it was everything that happened in this event. The walkout, the crowd reception, the performance. Everything came together perfectly just how Doumbé and the PFL drew it up. Now the question is, what does the future entail for Doumbé?
I’m not entirely sure what is next and I know they already have the card put together, but I wish there would be a way to get Doumbé on the championships card at the end of November. If that’s not feasible, I would say that they should try to get him back in there as soon as possible in early 2024 on a card with a lot of eyes attached to it. They need to continue exposing him to the masses because the star potential is real.
My assumption is that he’ll likely be apart of their 2024 season. He instantly shoots to the top of the list of most dangerous challengers to whoever walks away with the PFL championship this season. Doumbé has star written all over him and will definitely be one of the names to watch in 2024.