PXP enters the octagon!
After football, Project X Paris continues its foray into the world of sports by becoming an official partner of the MMA league AEF Championship. On October 14th, AEF 4 took place in Rennes, and PXP was obviously present on site. The show was also on point!
MMA, the new must-watch sport
Initially seen as the ugly duckling of combat sports, MMA is gradually spreading worldwide. The story didn’t start well, especially in France where the practice was long banned until 2020 precisely. Too violent, too "barbaric," the discipline was looked down upon by its older brothers, who prided themselves on a form of superiority compared to this new sport. What they didn’t realize then is that MMA is much more complete than each combat sport taken individually. MMA encompasses everything: boxing, grappling, Muay Thai, ju-jitsu, judo,... and it is about to surpass all other combat sports in popularity. In France, it is even on track to become one of the most followed sports, thanks to many champions like Cédric Doumbe, Cyril Gane, and Francis Ngannou, who trained with us for a long time. We can also thank Conor McGregor, whose flamboyant attitude attracted the world’s spotlight on this sport, which was until then almost unknown to the general public.
Thanks to the excitement created by the great champions of the discipline, MMA is now legal in most of the highly populated major countries, opening huge market shares in terms of audience. Gradually, this sport is entering popular culture, and in France, this translates into many links with the rap or football world, for example. We saw this during Cédric Doumbe’s fight some time ago, which was attended by many footballers and rappers. MMA and rap actually share several points in common, starting with being seen as the fifth wheel of the sports or music world, yet managing to impose themselves in everyone’s eyes thanks to genuine popular enthusiasm. Both reflect the youth of our country: diverse and determined, inventive, with a level that keeps rising. Many schools and clubs are emerging all over the country, which increases the overall competitiveness of the MMA pool in France. The more people interested in the discipline, the more unique talents are discovered and the higher the overall level will rise.
Project X Paris partner of the AEF Championship
In this perspective, many fighting leagues, professional or amateur, are emerging across the country. Recently, we’ve heard a lot about leagues like PFL or Arès (and also UFC internationally which also holds events in France), but we often forget to mention the many leagues opening to amateurs. This status concerns the vast majority of MMA practitioners in France and is naturally the number one talent pool for pro leagues. At Project X, we are extremely proud to announce that we have become partners of the Breton amateur league AEF Championship, which organized its fourth MMA gala of the year in Rennes. A colossal effort by the league members and Willy Sirope, former Brazilian ju-jitsu world champion who founded the organization. On October 14th, the event took place at Halle de la Courrouze. Eleven fights, with 8 KOs or submissions in the end, and a main event that ended with a nice victory for Patrick Habirora — we can say the show was on point, and the people who attended the event all agreed that the fights were balanced, a good thing for the organization’s credibility. That day, there was also a former rapper, Abou Debeing, who fought in the octagon and won his first victory.
A very beautiful event that we are happy to be associated with at Project X Paris. We really got involved, since the weigh-in, that inevitable ritual before each fight that ensures fighters do not exceed the required weight to stay in their category, took place in one of our stores! More precisely, the one at Columbia Shopping Center in Rennes, and we salute Salim Belhaj and his team for all the organization and logistics work on site. Because we can say there was a crowd! The store was simply packed, and the atmosphere was electric between the fighters sizing each other up. A presentation of the fighters also took place in our shop, amid a cheering crowd. Incredible memories for everyone present that night at the store. This AEF 4, which closes a promising year for the AEF Championship, is exactly the kind of initiative, both local, ambitious and inventive, that we endorse at PXP. We hope to see this league thrive, hope to collaborate again with such events, and long live French MMA!