Dan Hardy discussed how superstars like Cedric Doumbe bring more attention to other fighters on the same fight card.
On September 30, the Professional Fighters League traveled to the Zenith Paris La Villette in Paris, Francis for PFL Europe 3. The main event featured the promotional debut of Cedric Doumbe, a legendary Glory Kickboxer, who secured a nine-second knockout to extend his pro-MMA record to 5-0.
The fight card featured several upcoming prospects before Doumbe, which led to the former kickboxer bringing more attention to everyone else.
During an interview on The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani asked Dan Hardy, the PFL Europe Head of Fighter Operations, about using Doumbe to promote other prospects. Hardy responded by saying:
“I think it does help [to sell tickets]. From my perspective, the focus of the PFL Europe league, and I feel it will be the same for the Middle East and for Africa and wherever else we open up a league, it’s to identify talent in that region, not to purchase fighters that are already talented in that region and bring them in to show that we’ve got them.”
Dan Hardy continued by comparing Cedric Doumbe’s star power to Conor McGregor’s fighting for the UFC in Dublin:
“Doumbe did his work in kickboxing, so when he walked into the cage as a 4-0 MMA fighter, he was a superstar. I’ve literally only ever seen that reaction to a fighter one time and that was [Conor] McGregor in Dublin…That was a special event and the Cedric Doumbe event was a special event. And what it did was highlight the other fighters on the card…All of the other playoff fights that we had on the card, they got a lot more focus and a lot more interest because Cedric Doumbe was the headliner.”
HOLY 🤬! DOUMBE WITH THE FINISH IN SECONDS!#PFLParis
🇫🇷 EN EXCLUSIVITE sur RMC Sport
🇪🇺 INTERNATIONALLY LIVE on DAZN pic.twitter.com/TXUUvUZFyW— PFL (@PFLMMA) September 30, 2023
Dan Hardy plans to find the next PFL world champions from Europe
The first season of PFL Europe has already showcased several potential future world champions, including Simeon Powell, Dakota Ditcheva, and Frans Mlambo. Dan Hardy plans to continue his success moving forward to develop more elite talent in Europe.
Hardy had this say during the previously mentioned interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour:
“I do think we do need some of those [marquee] fighters in cards, and we’ve got some good names that are going to be positioned in featured bouts and main events next year. But, of course, my focus is finding the new stars of the next generation so we can pass them onto the global roster and potentially bring some belts back to Europe like we’ve got with Brendan Loughnane.”
On December 8, PFL Europe will hold their last event of the calendar year inside the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
The fight card will conclude their 2023 season with the following four tournament championship matchups – Jakob Nedoh vs. Simeon Powell (light heavyweight), Dakota Ditcheva vs. Valentina Scatizzi (women’s flyweight), Khurshed Kakhorov vs. Frans Mlambo (bantamweight), and Jakub Kaszuba vs. John Mitchell (lightweight).
Watch Dan Hardy’s entire interview on The MMA Hour below:
