Bellator 280 | 06 May 22 | |||||
Cheick Guillaume Ouedraogo (born May 17, 1975), more commonly known as Cheick Kongo, is a French heavyweight mixed martial artist and former kickboxer who fights in Bellator MMA. A professional MMA competitor since 2001, he has also competed for the UFC. As of September 01, 2019, he is #10 in the world rankings by Sherdog.
Born to a Burkinabé father and a Congolese mother, Kongo began training in martial arts when he was 5 years old, learning Kendo and Karate. As he grew older, he had already received black belt from both styles and began to expand his repertoire and trained in Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Savate and Greco-Roman Wrestling at age of 19. At age 23, he studied Pencak Silat, an Indonesian martial art, and was coached by Charles Joussot and Franck Ropers, men who brought silat to France. They taught Kongo the Pencak Silat style of Setia Hati Terate. He is also a cousin of rugby star Fulgence Ouedraogo, the French back-rower. Cheick is also a columnist for the French MMA magazine, Top Fight.