HOLY 🤬! DOUMBE WITH THE FINISH IN
SECONDS!#PFLParis
🇫🇷 EN EXCLUSIVITE sur RMC Sport
🇪🇺 INTERNATIONALLY LIVE on DAZN pic.twitter.com/UTRWWAF9qL— PFL Europe (@PFLEurope)
September 30, 2023
Cedric
Doumbe raised the bar for himself, perhaps exponentially.
The former Glory champion dazzled in his
Professional Fighters League debut, as he punched out Jordan Zebo
in the first round of their
PFL Europe 3 headliner on Saturday at Zenith Paris La Villette
in Paris. Zebo (4-1, 0-1 PFL) crashed and burned just nine seconds
into Round 1, a ripple of shock-and-awe electricity rippling
through the crowd.
Doumbe (5-0, 1-0 PFL) caught a head kick, countered with a leg kick
and sent a blazing left hook crashing into his opponent’s face.
Zebo collapsed and ate a right hook on his way down to the mat. A
few hammerfists followed before referee Marc Goddard could arrive
on the scene.
In the co-main event, former Brave Combat Federation titleholder
Abdoul
Abdouraguimov disposed of Brad
Wheeler with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their
encounter at a 180-pound catchweight. Wheeler (18-14, 0-1 PFL)
raised the white flag of surrender 2:43 into Round 1.
Abdouraguimov (17-1, 1-0 PFL) followed a leg kick into the clinch
and executed a trip takedown. He moved immediately to full mount,
tuned up the ground-and-pound and floated between dominant
positions. Abdouraguimov transitioned from an arm-triangle to the
rear-naked choke, went palm-to-palm with his grip and tightened the
squeeze until the job was done.
The 28-year-old Abdouraguimov has rattled off seven straight
victories, all of them finishes. He plans to drop to lightweight
for the 2024 PFL season.
Meanwhile, the surging Jakob Nedoh
wiped out Team Tourcoing rep Anthony
Salamone with punches in the first round of their light
heavyweight semifinal. Nedoh (7-1, 2-0 PFL) brought it to a close
95 seconds into Round 1, extending his current winning streak to
seven fights.
Salamone (8-2, 1-2 PFL) met the Slovenian brute with hooks from
both hands, right uppercuts and an aggressive clinch. None of it
mattered. Nedoh cut loose with a crushing one-two, as he decked his
counterpart with a concussive overhand right. He pounced with
punches and slammed the door with a violent volley of unanswered
lefts.
Nedoh, 26, will battle Simeon
Powell (9-0, 5-0 UFC)—a unanimous decision winner over Daniel
Ladero Gartner (3-3, 0-2 PFL) in the other semifinal at 205
pounds—in the $100,000 light heavyweight final on Dec. 8.
Elsewhere, Manchester Top Team’s Dakota
Ditcheva put away Cornelia
Holm with punches in the third round of their women’s flyweight
semifinal. Finished for just the second time in her 12-fight
career, Holm (6-6, 1-1 PFL) checked out 2:55 into Round 3.
The 25-year-old Ditcheva (9-0, 4-0 PFL) blasted the lead leg with
kicks, targeted the body with a variety of techniques and leaned on
stellar takedown defense. She dazed Holm with an overhand right in
the second round, scrambled to the back following a failed takedown
and piled up points with modest ground-and-pound. It sent a stern
message to the grappling-centric underdog. Ditcheva turned up the
heat in the third, where she doubled over the Swede with a vicious
straight left to the liver, sent her into a defensive shell with a
right hook and prompted the stoppage.
Ditcheva will confront Valentina
Scatizzi (2-1, 1-0 PFL)—who advanced with a walkover against
Manuela
Marconetto in the other semifinal at 125 pounds—in the $100,000
women’s flyweight final in December.
Further down the card, Xtreme Couture’s Khurshed
Kakhorov overcame in inauspicious start to take a unanimous
decision from previously undefeated former UAE Warriors champion
Ali
Taleb in their three-round bantamweight semifinal. Kakhorov
(11-1, 2-0 PFL) carried all three scorecards: 29-28, 29-27 and
29-27.
Taleb (9-1, 2-1 PFL) fired the first significant salvo when he
floored the ex-European Fight Masters titleholder with a right
uppercut and moved on an attempted guillotine choke inside the
first five minutes. Kakhorov weathered the storm, drew the Swede
into deeper waters and let his skills do the rest. He buckled Taleb
on multiple occasions with counter right hooks in Round 2, pinned
him to the fence and nearly finished it with a follow-up burst of
punches. Kakhorov stayed patient and disciplined down the stretch,
chipped away with damaging leg kicks and completed a takedown with
roughly 90 seconds to go in the match, tying a bow on his third
straight victory.
Kakhorov will meet Frans
Mlambo (15-5, 2-0 PFL)—a split decision winner over Moktar
Benkaci (20-9, 0-2 PFL) in the other semifinal at 135 pounds—in
the $100,000 bantamweight final on Dec. 8.
Finally, the unbeaten Jakub
Kaszuba rode superior output to a unanimous decision over SBG
Ireland product Dylan Tuke in
their three-round lightweight semifinal. All three cageside judges
scored it for Kaszuba (10-0, 2-0 PFL): 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.
Tuke (6-4, 1-1 PFL) was effective early on. He held his own in the
clinch and made a significant move late in the first round, as he
scrambled into top position, progressed to the back with a body
triangle and threatened with a rear-naked choke in the closing
seconds. Kaszuba was undeterred. The onetime Combat Night champion
opened a serious cut on Tuke’s left eyebrow with a close-range knee
strike in the second round and hit the accelerator in the third.
There, Kaszuba staggered the Irishman with a right hand, followed
it with a knee strike and secured a takedown. He spent the final 75
seconds in top position, applying his ground-and-pound and hunting
positional advances.
Kaszuba will face John
Mitchell (8-1, 2-0 PFL)—a unanimous decision winner over Geysim
Derouiche (6-4, 0-2 PFL) in the other semifinal at 155 pounds—in
the $100,000 lightweight final in December.
In other action, Yazid
Chouchane (10-3, 1-0 PFL) was awarded a unanimous verdict
against Henrique
Madureira (6-3, 0-1 PFL) in a three-round lightweight pairing,
earning 30-27 nods from all three members of the judiciary;
Laureano
Staropoli (13-5, 1-0 PFL) forced Boundjou
Baba Nadjombe (7-5, 0-1 PFL) to quit on his stool in between
the second and third rounds of their catchweight clash at 180
pounds; and Shanelle
Dyer (3-0, 1-0 PFL) cruised to a one-sided unanimous decision
over Luisa
Cifuentes (4-3, 0-1 PFL) in a three-round women’s flyweight
affair, sweeping the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks from the
cageside judges.