Cedric Doumbe loses by bizarre stoppage after foot injury, referee confusion at PFL Europe

Cedric Doumbe’s first MMA loss came in bizarre fashion.

On Thurday night, Doumbe faced Baysangur Chamsoudinov in the main event of PFL Europe at the Accor Arena in Paris. It was a big night for one of PFL’s biggest stars, but unfortunately it ended in disappointing fashion when referee Marc Goddard stopped the action in the third round after Doumbe suffered an issue with something in his foot.

In the opening round, Chamsoudinov used his wrestling to consistently tie up Doumbe and take him to the mat. Doumbe showed solid defensive grappling by getting back to his feet, but had no answer for the relentless wrestling of Chamsoudinov. Things improved for Doumbe in the second, as he kept on his feet more and started to land his right hand more often. And the third round was shaping up nicely until the strange scene unfolded.

During a lull in activity between the two, Goddard called for action and Chamsoudinov pointed to Doumbe, apparently beckoning him to fight. Doumbe then looked to Goddard and pointed to his foot like there was an issue there, and Goddard jumped in to stop the fight over the immediate protests of Doumbe.

In the aftermath, Doumbe revealed that a foreign object was lodged in his foot, saying that he only wanted to stop to remove it and continue fighting.

“I didn’t want to stop the fight, not at all,” Doumbe said in his post-fight interview. “I wanted to fight, as everybody saw. … But I have a small glass in my foot. I don’t know, inside the cage. It’s hurting me. I just wanted to remove it and keep going. So the referee told me, ‘You can’t stop.’ I said OK. I wanted to fight, and then my opponent is looking at me, he says something is annoying me, just remove it, and then we stop both, together. Looking at the referee, and then he stopped the fight. That’s not his fault, that’s the referee’s fault. It is what it is.”

The loss moves Doumbe to 5-1 in his MMA career while Chamsoudinov moves to 8-0.