UFC News & FeaturesDarian Weeks on Missed Cedric Doumbe Fight: ‘That's Somebody I'd Like to Go Against’
Darian Weeks won’t be testing his skills against a former kickboxing champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship anytime soon, but hope springs eternal.
Weeks (5-2, 0-2 UFC) was briefly attached to a clash with former Glory Kickboxing titleholder Cedric Doumbe at UFC Fight Night 209 last weekend in Paris before the matchup was cancelled when the French athletic commission declined to sanction the bout due to the disparity in mixed martial arts experience between the two contestants. Doumbe's enormous striking experience apparently was not enough to outweigh the disparity between his two professional MMA bouts and Weeks' seven. Instead of the Doumbe fight, Weeks is now set to take on Yohan Lainesse on the preliminary card of UFC 279 on Saturday in Las Vegas, but he isn't quite ready to let go of the chance to test his skills against a world-class kickboxer one day.
“From what I hear, from that point of view, I guess the French commission didn't think he had enough fights in MMA in order to perform in the UFC on that date, which is weird to me because he has over 80 kickboxing matches. I mean, he's a professional in his sport. I guess they felt like he didn't have enough fights to fight someone with seven fights, so they went ahead and threw it out. It's a sad deal. Like you said, I would've loved to see that fight too. I would've loved to be in that fight. It would've been a good clash. He comes forward, he throws hard, and that's somebody I like to go against, somebody who does that. Maybe down the road, we could still meet up after he gets a couple more fights under his belt. Who knows, that clash could still happen.”
(00:00) Intro
(00:30) Drinking his morning coffee
(01:04) Heading to his conditioning session
(01:36) Preparing for Yohan Lainesse
(02:42) What happened to his clash with Cedric Doumbe
(04:06) Not competing on the UFC Paris card
(05:42) His expectation for Lainesse
(06:49) What surprised him the most about Garry
(08:30) Looking for a rematch with Garry
(09:18) Picking Nate Diaz vs. Khamzat Chimaev
(10:11) Expecting Leon Edwards to defeat Kamaru Usman
(11:19) Predicting a finish
(11:51) His barber shop activity
(12:25) Outro
