PFL Europe to Start Season on March 7, Cedric Doumbe-‘Baki’ Chamsoudinov Headlines

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The Professional Fighters League is wasting little time to get its next European season started.

Via press release on Thursday, the organization announced that PFL Europe’s 2024 Season will begin on March 7. The first event of the year-long tournament will be held at the Accor Arena in Paris, with the promotion returning to the city it first planted its flag in September 2023. Instead of the Zenith Paris La Villette, the fights will post up in the larger arena that has played host to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA in the past. Just one fight has been announced, and it will be a non-tourney match at 170 pounds between Cedric Doumbe (5-0) and Baissangour Chamsoudinov (7-0). The entire PFL Europe season will air on Dazn, but it is unclear if they will be available for overseas audiences.

The league ran tournaments in four weight divisions of bantamweight, lightweight, light heavyweight and women’s flyweight in 2024. The PFL has stated that welterweight will be a new weight class offered in this tournament, but not which division will be cast out this year. The victors of the brackets—Khurshed Kakhorov, Jakub Kaszuba, Jakob Nedoh and Dakota Ditcheva, respectively—all claimed $100,000 checks, a gold belt and a chance to fight for the main PFL league this coming year. The second PFL Europe card in 2024 will take place at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, England, on June 8, while the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, will receive the playoffs on Sept. 28. The 2024 finals are not currently on the books.

Doumbe will be returning to the league after a nine-second triumph in France as the headliner of the PFL Europe 3 2023 Playoffs. The former kickboxer decimated fellow-unbeaten Jordan Zebo with a consciousness-depriving left hand, putting an end to an evening that featured a very confident Doumbe informing his foe he was going to win in brutal fashion. As a professional, the Frenchman has won all five of his outings by knockout.

Grappler Chamsoudinov reaches the PFL after a trio of victories on the Ares Fighting Championship circuit, where most recently he stopped UFC vet Efrain Escudero in a 178-pound catchweight contest. The fighter known as “Baki” has not earned all of his wins by knockout, but it is his predominant method of stoppage as well. Of note, Chamsoudinov competed early in his career in matches with the Hard Fighting Championship league in Switzerland, making his pro debut in August 2019 but dropping down back to the amateur rulesets for a pair of encounters against Fabien Jeanfreu and Lukas Maier.