Anthony Pettis arrived in Paris late Tuesday night for one purpose — to set up a future fight against former GLORY kickboxing champion Cedric Doumbe.
With a boxing match already booked against Chris Avila for July, Pettis received a call from PFL to gauge his interest in fighting Doumbe. It wasn’t long after that conversation that Pettis boarded a flight bound for France, where he’ll now sit cageside to watch Doumbe clash with Jaleel Willis in the Bellator Paris co-main event on Friday.
“[PFL] want me to fight Doumbe,” Pettis told MMA Fighting on Wednesday, “if he has a good performance this Friday, which I am up for as well. Where I’m at in my career, when it comes to mixed martial arts, I’m looking for exciting, fun fights. The guy has to have a name and something behind him. Cedric checks most of those boxes, besides his last fight.
“That was the only thing I told PFL. His last fight, I didn’t like the outcome of that. He has to do something impressive for me to want to fight this guy and make it make sense.”
In Doumbe’s previous outing, he suffered his first professional MMA loss after complaining to referee Marc Goddard about a splinter in his foot. When Goddard commanded him to keep fighting, Doumbe essentially asked for a timeout to address the splinter rather than engage with his opponent.
A second later, Goddard waved off the fight and Doumbe suffered a loss as a result.
“He still has a lot to learn when it comes to mixed martial arts,” Pettis said of Doumbe. “He doesn’t like the forward pressure and fighting off his back foot, and the level changes gave him problems. They didn’t give him an easy fight. His last opponent was a tough guy. That dude was good. He was a very good test at that point in his career, but it showed the holes in his mixed martial arts game. Great striker, but you put him on that back foot and you change levels, he second-guesses himself. He doesn’t want to be in there. We saw with the splinter.
“If he wanted to fight and win that fight, it was one round to one round, that was his f*cking fight to go, and he didn’t do it. That’s what I told PFL. My interest fell back a little after that last one, but then they set him up with this one, which should be a great KO, a great finish.”
More than anything else, Pettis says that’s what he has to see out of Doumbe on Friday to keep him interested in the fight.
After beating legendary boxer Roy Jones Jr. in April 2023, Pettis has opportunities available to him like the fight with Avila on the Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz card in July. Pettis has no problem sticking to boxing for now if Doumbe doesn’t get the job done at Bellator Paris.
“He has to be impressive,” Pettis said. “I’m here to see him catch a knockout. This is his hometown. I know he’s got a huge fan base out here. That’s what I’m looking for. Somebody with a name. He checks a lot of those boxes but he’s still young in his career, he’s an up-and-coming guy.
“If he goes out there and shits the bed on Friday, I’ll probably stick to boxing and do another boxing fight before we do another MMA fight. But if he goes out there and impresses and does what he’s supposed to do, we’ll set up a match at the end of the year.”
Pettis is “very familiar” with Doumbe’s career going back to his dominant kickboxing run, but a fight between them would take place under MMA rules — and that’s very different.
There’s a long list of kickboxers who transitioned to MMA and struggled to find success. Pettis knows he would serve a massive step up in competition for Doumbe, and it would be sink or swim for the former GLORY standout in only his seventh pro fight.
“I was very surprised [PFL wanted this fight], but not with his kickboxing pedigree,” Pettis said. “I think what the PFL needs is exciting fights. When that last fight happened, they had a great audience, Paris was packed out and the ending kind of f*cks up that whole thing they built up. So I think they’re trying to rebound from that and they know his fighting style and my fighting style matches for a fun, great fight. I’m not coming back to try and fight for a title in PFL or Bellator right now. I’m only coming back to MMA for fun fights, ones that make sense, and ones I know I can go out there and perform well.
“You saw it in his last fight. Every time that dude changed levels and he was on his front foot, Doumbe was on his back foot and retreating and didn’t look as dangerous. He looked very human. The fight before that, he got to get off a little bit and more forward and you saw that result. I know his strength is coming forward and trying to be kickboxing, but this is a mixed martial arts fight. My jiu-jitsu is night and day different than him, Striking for mixed martial arts, I have way more experience than him. I’ve fought tougher guys. First he’s got to look impressive, and then I’ll break down what I’ve got to do to beat this guy.”
