Cyril Abidi (born February 25, 1976), nicknamed "The Marseille Bad Boy", is a French former

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

kickboxer Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid martial art and boxing type based on punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouth guards, shorts, and ...

and

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

. A professional competitor from 1998 until 2007, he is perhaps best remembered for his upset first-round knockout win over

Peter Aerts Peter Aerts (born 25 October 1970) is a Dutch retired kickboxer. Known for his devastating high kicks, which earned him the nickname "The Dutch Lumberjack", he is widely considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time. B ...

, which he followed up with another win in the rematch a month later. Abidi also defeated K-1 standouts

Ray Sefo Ray Sefo (born 15 February 1971) is a New Zealand fight promoter and retired kickboxer, boxer, and mixed martial artist. He was the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 Runner-up, is a six-time Muay Thai World Champion, and was an eight time K-1 World G ...

and Petar Majstorovic.

Background

Abidi grew up in the north ''quartiers'' of

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

(Consolat), in a modest Tunisian family. When he was 6, his mother took him to

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

classes to keep him off the streets. He practiced judo for four years until he was inspired by

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...

, his childhood idol, and started taking

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

lessons. When he was 18, he discovered Thaiboxing and became French champion at the age of 20.

Career

A year later, he entered

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the worl ...

, fighting against Petar Majstorovic in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and winning by a

unanimous Unanimity is agreement by all people in a given situation. Groups may consider unanimous decisions as a sign of social, political or procedural agreement, solidarity, and unity. Unanimity may be assumed explicitly after a unanimous vote or impl ...

decision. Later that year, he faced

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

fighter

on July 7. A heavy underdog, Abidi knocked out Aerts with a right cross at 2:13 of the first round. A month later, the two squared off again at the 2000 Heavyweight Grand Prix in Yokohama, with Abidi winning again in the first round after Aerts' corner threw in the towel. After causing another upset with a win over

later that night, Abidi faced Francisco Filho for the heavyweight final. Abidi lost after his corner threw in the towel in the second round. Later on December 10 of that same year, Abidi and Aerts faced off for a third time at the 2000 Japan World Grand Prix, with Aerts this time winning via unanimous decision. Later that night, Abidi fought in a rematch with

, their last bout being the semifinal of the Yokohama Grand Prix. Sefo avenged his defeat via first-round TKO. After starting off 2001 with a decision win, Abidi was upset by South African Andrew Thomson, losing via TKO just 1:15 into the first round. He fought just once more in 2001, winning via fourth-round TKO. After a KO win in May 2002, it was announced Abidi would face then

PRIDE Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

Middleweight contender and future

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champions are fighters who have won UFC championships. Historical notes At the time of the UFC's inception in 1993, mixed martial arts was not sanctioned in the United States, and did not include weight class ...

Quinton Jackson Quinton Ramone Jackson (born June 20, 1978), known by his ring name of Rampage Jackson, is an American rapper, former mixed martial artist, actor, kickboxer, and professional wrestler. During the course of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, ...

. Some pundits did not expect Jackson's wild brawling style to be adaptable to K-1 competition against a well-rounded striker such as Abidi. However, Abidi lost via upset after being knocked out just under two minutes into the first round. After losing to Bob Sapp in another first-round defeat, Abidi faced Jackson in a rematch at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event in 2002. Abidi lost again, this time via decision after three rounds. In his short foray into

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

, Abidi lost to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

n comedian

Bobby Ologun is a Nigerian-born television personality and mixed martial artist with Japanese citizenship. In Japan, he is known simply as . He speaks English, Yoruba and Japanese. He lives in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture. On July 26, 2007, he announced o ...

in his first fight in MMA. Abidi was a last minute replacement for

Mike Bernardo Michael Shawn Bernardo (28 July 1969 – 14 February 2012) was a South African kickboxer and boxer from Cape Town. Bernardo was known as Beru-chan in Japan, where he has taken part in K-1 World GPs since 1994. He holds notable wins over ...

who was injured. The events surrounding the outcome raised suspicion of a fixed fight and Abidi seemed to lend credence to this in a post match interview. His fight against fellow

Frenchman French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from nort ...

and rival

Jérôme Le Banner Jérôme Philippe Le Banner (; born December 26, 1972) is a French kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler. Le Banner fought for most of his career in K-1 and became known for his aggressive fighting style and knockout power. ...

K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Paris K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

, on May 27, 2005, is considered to be one of the greatest battles in

history. Abidi lost by a technical knockout. After losing the fight, Abidi stirred controversy by throwing three strikes at Le Banner, who deflected them but both fighters would have to be restrained by their corners and the officials ringside.

Titles

* 2003 K-1 World GP 3rd place * 2003 K-1 World Grand Prix in Paris runner up * 2000 K-1 World GP 2nd place * 2000 K-1 World GP in Yokohama runner up * 2000 Thai Boxing World champion * 2000 French Heavyweight Amateur Boxing champion * 1996 French Kickboxing champion

Kickboxing record

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, 0–2 ,

, Decision (unanimous) ,

K-1 Premium Dynamite!! K-1 PREMIUM Dynamite!! (or simply Dynamite!!) was an annual kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) event held in Japan by the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG). It began as a co-production between the Pride Fighting Championships (PRIDE ...

, Japan , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 3:00 ,

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 0–1 ,

Don Frye Donald Frye (born November 23, 1965) is an American former mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, and actor. In MMA, he was one of the sport's earliest well-rounded fighters and won the '' UFC 8'' and '' David vs. Goliath 96'' tournament ...

, Submission (rear-naked choke) , Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2001, Japan , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 0:33 , Saitama, Japan ,

References

External links

*
Cyril Abidi's websiteProfile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abidi, Cyril 1976 births Living people French male kickboxers Tunisian male kickboxers Heavyweight kickboxers French male mixed martial artists Heavyweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing Muay Thai Mixed martial artists utilizing judo Mixed martial artists utilizing karate French male Muay Thai practitioners French male judoka French male karateka Martial artists from Marseille French sportspeople of Tunisian descent French people of Armenian descent