While UFC 311 will take center stage last Saturday night (Jan. 18, 2025), Professional Fighters League (PFL) will kick off its 2025 campaign with the upcoming Bellator “Road to Dubai” event this weekend (Sat., Jan 25) inside Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The event will feature a Lightweight title fight as division champion, Usman Nurmagomedov, will defend his belt against rising Irish sensation, Paul Hughes, who earned his shot at the strap by upsetting A.J. McKee at “Battle of the Giants” on Oct. 2024. As for Nurmagomedov, he has yet to taste defeat and will look to add to his mint record of 18-0-1.
The card is being billed as “Dagestan vs. Ireland 2,” an homage to “Khabib vs. McGregor” since both Usman and Hughes have ties to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, who infamously went to war at UFC 229 six years ago.
And we all know how that turned out.
Speaking of Khabib, he was heavily featured in episode one of PFL’s “Road to Dubai” series, a pre-fight preview that mirrors that of HBO Sports wildly-popular “24/7” collection. Ahead of the highly-anticipated showdown, dive in to get a closer look and hear from both Nurmagomedov and Hughes as they prepare for the first big PFL fight of 2025, which will also feature a Heavyweight fight between Vadim Nemkov and Tim Johnson.
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