Cyril Abidi

Cyril Abidi, nicknamed The Marseille Bad Boy, is a French former heavyweight kickboxer and mixed martial artist, born on 25 February 1976. He grew up in the northern quarters of Marseille in a Tunisian family, practised judo for four years, then took up karate after being inspired by Bruce Lee, and found Thai boxing at eighteen, becoming French champion at twenty. A professional from 1998 until 2007, he is best remembered for his first round knockout of Peter Aerts in July 2000, which he repeated in a rematch a month later in Yokohama, and he also beat Ray Sefo and Petar Majstorovic. He reached the heavyweight final of the 2000 Yokohama Grand Prix and lost it to Francisco Filho. This entry is written from the English Wikipedia article on Cyril Abidi.