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Cyril Abidi Bio

Cyril "Marseille Bad Boy" Abidi (born on February 25, 1976) is a retired French Heavyweight K-1 kickboxer and martial artist. His road to fame started in 2000 when he entered K-1 and created a huge upset with a 1st round KO win over legendary Peter Aerts.

Biography & Career

Cyril Abidi grew up in the north quartiers of Marseille (Consolat), in a modest Moroccan family. When he was 6, his mom took him to Judo classes to keep Cyril out of the streets. He practiced Judo for four years until he got inspired by Bruce Lee, his childhood idol, and started taking Karate lessons.

When he was 18, he discovered thaiboxing and became French champion at the age of 20. A year later he entered K-1, fighting against Petar Majstorovic in Zurich, Switzerland, and winning the bout by unanimous decision. Later that year he made a name for himself, winning two back to back fights in the first round over famous Dutch fighter Peter Aerts, it wasn't until their third meeting at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2000 Finals in the Tokyo Dome, Japan, when Aerts was able to beat Abidi by three round unanimous decision.

In his short foray into MMA fighting, he lost to Nigerian comedian Bobby Ologun in which was his first time fighting in MMA. Abidi was a last minute replacement for Mike Bernardo who was out with an injury. The events surrounding the outcome raised suspicion of a fixed fight and Abidi seemed to lend credence to it in a post match interview.

"I didn’t have enough time to prepare for this fight, but I think I did do a good job for my first time. It was really good that my opponent is not so strong…..If he was a really strong fighter, I would have had had a hell of a time."

"Why I am smiling a lot? Even though I lost this fight, I don’t have any feelings that I really lost a realistic fight. Maybe this was as expected."

His fight against fellow Frenchman and rival Jérôme Le Banner at K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Paris, on May 27, 2005, which Abidi lost by TKO, is considered one of the greatest battles in K-1 history.