This past Saturday, the PFL kicked off their 2026 campaign with their card in Dubai headlined by two world title fights. In the main event, Usman Nurmagomedov (21-0, 1 NC) defended his title against 2025 lightweight world tournament champion Alfie Davis (20-6-1).
Entering this bout, Nurmagomedov was a massive -2000 favorite and nobody that I saw was giving Alfie Davis much of a chance. While Davis pulled off a massive upset against a Russian in his last fight, this was another beast in Usman Nurmagomedov.
Davis was game, but never got anything going against the lightweight champion. Eventually in the third round, Nurmagomedov got Davis to the ground and advanced to an arm triangle position. It felt like he didn’t even have the choke in very long before he choked Davis out to retain the PFL lightweight championship.
What’s next after PFL Dubai?
Usman Nurmagomedov is the P4P #1 fighter in the PFL and he just defended his lightweight title for the first time after defeating Paul Hughes for a second time to become champion last year. It’s hard to imagine many in the promotion giving Nurmagomedov much of a challenge.
In terms of his next fight, I think the new promotional rankings give us a clear challenger. Nurmagomedov should be facing fellow unbeaten fighter Archie Colgan (13-0). Colgan is 9-0 under the Bellator / PFL banner and in his last two fights, he has wins over Jay Jay Wilson and Mansour Barnaoui.
It’s the only fight that makes sense and the PFL has to get this one booked. My guess is that you’ll likely see this fight happen in the summer months this year.
More about:MMA
