{"id":103969,"date":"2026-06-04T06:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/blood-diamond\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T21:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:15:40","slug":"blood-diamond","status":"publish","type":"fighter_profile","link":"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/blood-diamond\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Diamond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blood Diamond : le Zimbabw\u00e9en de City Kickboxing qui a tout donn\u00e9 \u00e0 l’UFC<\/h2>\n

De Harare \u00e0 Auckland, un chemin atypique<\/h3>\n

Mike Mathetha a quitt\u00e9 le Zimbabwe \u00e0 14 ans en 2003 pour rejoindre la Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande avec sa famille, posant ses valises \u00e0 Blenheim, petite ville du bout du monde en bout de l’\u00eele du Sud. C’est l\u00e0, loin de l’agitation des grandes salles, qu’il tombe dans le sport de combat. Il rejoint ensuite Auckland et City Kickboxing, le gym qui allait changer le cours de sa vie \u2014 et croiser celui d’un certain Israel Adesanya.<\/p>\n

Les deux Africains d’Auckland cliquent imm\u00e9diatement. Pendant des ann\u00e9es, ils s’entra\u00eenent ensemble, voyagent en Chine pour des combats de kickboxing, partagent leur chambre d’h\u00f4tel et se coin\u00e7ent mutuellement dans les coins de ring. \u00ab\u00a0Le monde le conna\u00eet comme Israel ‘The Last Stylebender’ Adesanya, mais pour moi c’est juste le m\u00eame Iz que j’ai rencontr\u00e9 il y a des ann\u00e9es\u00a0\u00bb, dit Mathetha. Quand Izzy entre en sc\u00e8ne \u00e0 l’UFC 271 en f\u00e9vrier 2022 pour d\u00e9fendre son titre des mi-lourds, c’est Blood Diamond qui marche sur le m\u00eame card pour son propre bapt\u00eame octagonal.<\/p>\n

Un kickboxer de carri\u00e8re reconverti par n\u00e9cessit\u00e9<\/h3>\n

Avant l’octogone, Mathetha accumule plus de 50 victoires en kickboxing professionnel, dont le titre WKBF NZ et deux sacres au King of the Ring Tournament en Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande. Le probl\u00e8me ? Plus moyen de trouver des adversaires. C’est Bareman qui le pousse vers le MMA : \u00ab\u00a0Avec de l’exp\u00e9rience en MMA, tu auras des combats en pagaille.\u00a0\u00bb Il d\u00e9bute en MMA en mai 2017, b\u00e2tit un record de 3 victoires sans d\u00e9faite \u2014 KO sur Jo Van Duin (mai 2017), soumission de Hyun Min Hwang en un round (juillet 2018), d\u00e9cision sur Dimps Gillies (f\u00e9vrier 2020) \u2014 et signe \u00e0 l’UFC \u00e0 l’\u00e9t\u00e9 2021.<\/p>\n

Blood Diamond devient alors le premier combattant zimbabw\u00e9en \u00e0 fouler l’octogone de l’UFC. Pas une anecdote : une vraie page d’histoire pour un pays sans tradition MMA.<\/p>\n

Trois combats, trois d\u00e9faites \u00e0 l’UFC<\/h3>\n

L’UFC 271 \u00e0 Houston, 12 f\u00e9vrier 2022 : Blood Diamond croise Jeremiah Wells d\u00e8s le premier tour et se retrouve \u00e9trangl\u00e9 par un rear naked choke \u00e0 4h38 de la premi\u00e8re reprise. Dure entr\u00e9e en mati\u00e8re. Cinq mois plus tard \u00e0 Dallas, il revient \u00e0 l’UFC 277 (30 juillet 2022) contre Orion Cosce dans un combat en catchweight \u00e0 172,5 livres \u2014 et l\u00e2che encore une d\u00e9cision aux points au bout de trois rounds. Son coach Eugene Bareman reconna\u00eet publiquement que Mathetha n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 lui-m\u00eame lors de ses d\u00e9buts.<\/p>\n

Apr\u00e8s un an d’absence, il revient \u00e0 Sydney le 9 septembre 2023, \u00e0 l’UFC 293 \u2014 encore un \u00e9v\u00e9nement marqu\u00e9 par la pr\u00e9sence d’Adesanya, qui perd son titre face \u00e0 Sean Strickland le m\u00eame soir. Blood Diamond affronte le d\u00e9butant Charles Radtke et perd aux points en trois rounds, avec un point d\u00e9duit pour des coups bas r\u00e9p\u00e9t\u00e9s. R\u00e9sultat final : 0-3 \u00e0 l’UFC, inactif depuis.<\/p>\n

Son nom avant tout<\/h3>\n

Mike Mathetha a demand\u00e9 \u00e0 signer son contrat UFC uniquement sous son surnom, sans patronyme. Il voulait que \u00ab\u00a0Blood Diamond\u00a0\u00bb devienne si connu que la recherche Google affiche son profil avant le film de DiCaprio. La pression, dit-il, fabrique les diamants. Sur l’octogone, la mati\u00e8re premi\u00e8re \u00e9tait l\u00e0 \u2014 le r\u00e9sultat n’a pas encore suivi.<\/p>\n

Sources :<\/strong> UFC.com<\/a>, UFC Roster Watch<\/a>, NewZimbabwe.com<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike \u00ab\u00a0Blood Diamond\u00a0\u00bb Mathetha, premier Zimbabw\u00e9en \u00e0 l’UFC, 0-3 dans l’octogone malgr\u00e9 50+ victoires en kickboxing et des ann\u00e9es de gym avec Israel Adesanya \u00e0 City Kickboxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":101971,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"fighter_category":[69976],"fighter_tag":[],"class_list":["post-103969","fighter_profile","type-fighter_profile","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fighter_category-welterweight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlood Diamond - Biographie MMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Biographie compl\u00e8te de Blood Diamond\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grizzliz.com\/media\/fighter\/blood-diamond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blood Diamond - 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