He was supposed to wrap his opponent up, but ended up wrapping himself up. On March 7, Cédric Doumbé, rising MMA star in France and king of the pre-fight verbal joust, lost to Baysangur "Baki" Chamsoudinov. At the start of the fight's third and final restart, he was stopped by the referee for a technical knockout after repeatedly complaining of pain in his foot caused by a splinter: a decision he is now contesting. At the heart of the Accor Arena Paris, in front of 20,000 stunned spectators, the former kick-boxing world champion lost his invincibility and, above all, some of his credibility.
Facing Baki, Doumbé of course wore gloves, true symbols of MMA. In the early 1990s, fighters first clashed barehanded, but gloves quickly became the preferred choice for their practicality and versatility. In this discipline, which combines different combat sports with a certain brutality (MMA stands for mixed martial arts), gloves are thick enough to box without risk of injury, but thin enough not to interfere with fights on the ground. The only drawback is that it's not easy to get a splinter out with gloved hands.
The PFL logo can be seen on Doumbé's gloves, as well as on the shirt of the cameraman in front of him. The Professional Fighters League (PFL), one of the many organizations trying to cash in on the current boom in MMA, which has only been legal in France since 2020, offers posters that are as attractive as possible. But, in this world of bullies, the PFL has its own little peculiarity: Unlike all the other organizations, it strictly prohibits all elbow strikes. Let's thank the PFL for this delicate attention to detail.
In this poignant image, taken a few seconds after the fight while the famous splinter was being extracted, Doumbé is clinging to the cage's wire mesh. Although the first fights took place in classic boxing rings, the cage was introduced in the early 2000s to provide fighters with a safer fighting environment. Is it effective? Proponents argue that the octagonal cage eliminates angles, a major cause of injury in the ring. Its detractors counter that its mesh turns fighters into animals and pushes them to even greater aggression.
Finally, since we're on the subject of sports and improbable injuries, how can we fail to mention the crazy misadventure of footballer Steve Marlet at Euro 2004? A few hours before the tournament kicked off, the French national team player accidentally caught his accreditation badge in the eye. Suffering a torn cornea, he was unable to take part in the competition, the only major tournament for which he was called up to play for Les Bleus. Another technical knockout.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.