MMA: Cheick Kongo v Ryan Bader in Bellator heavyweight title fight

Timing is everything in sport. And Cheick Guillaume Ouedraogo — known as Cheick Kongo, and the cousin of France rugby forward Fulgence Ouedraogo — has always been ahead of his time.

His longevity in the sport has seen him realise a dream. Not until his mid-40s has the combat artist been able to fight in his native France.

But now the heavyweight, born to a Burkinabe father and a Congolese mother, gets the second opportunity to headline in his home town for a shot at the Bellator MMA heavyweight crown. History in the making, potentially.

Kongo took centre stage in the historic first Bellator Paris event in October 2020 — a first for the fight league and the first event in France by a leading MMA fight league.

Although he lost to Timothy Johnson, Kongo is gathering his storm to bring everything against incumbent Bellator champion Ryan Bader on 6 May. It will be Kongo's 69th contest in kickboxing and MMA.

Before 2019, MMA was banned in France, and it was not until the walls were breached, after much lobbying — political and sporting — that an MMA event was licenced in France. It came at the behest of Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu, a former swimmer, who lifted restrictions that had been hanging over the fighting arts in that country since MMA's inception in 1993. Times have changed.

Kongo sees it as «a gift» for the MMA movement. After an unbeaten four-year streak in Bellator and nine victories, Kongo met Bader for the belt in the United States in 2019 — behind closed doors in a fight declared a No Contest due to accidental eye-pokes — and the fighter remains furious that some fans say he «quit» in that fight.

Finally, though, after being a road warrior in the USA, Japan and all over Europe for over 20 years, the title fight