This past Friday, the PFL held their Road to Dubai event which featured two big time title fights. In the main event, we saw a rematch for the lightweight title between Usman Nurmagomedov (20-0, 1 NC) and Paul Hughes (14-3).
The first fight back in January between these two was incredibly close and I expected to see another really close fight on Friday. We saw an extremely competitive fight that I thought could’ve gone either way. Watching live, I leaned 48-47 Nurmagomedov, but it was incredibly close.
That said, the scorecards at PFL Road to Dubai were not close at all which seemed off to me. Usman Nurmagomedov won 50-45 and a 49-46 on two of the cards. Again, I had Nurmagomedov winning live, but those scores were way off. Nevertheless, the decision is what it is and Nurmagomedov is the new lightweight champion.
In the light heavyweight title fight, we saw a rematch between former Bellator champ Corey Anderson (20-6, 1 NC) and last year’s season champion Dovlet Yagshimuradov (25-8-1). Yagshimuradov got off to a really good start with his striking in the first round and appeared to hurt Anderson.
However, once Anderson survived that early flurry, he started to take things over. Yagshimuradov really slowed down as the fight went on and Anderson controlled things with his wrestling in pressure. After five rounds, Anderson was given the win and he’s the new PFL light heavyweight champion.
What’s next after PFL Road to Dubai?
The PFL now has two new world champions and I think their next fights are clear but you can’t be too certain. For Nurmagomedov, it would appear that his next fight will come against this year’s World Tournament winner, Alfie Davis (20-5-1).
Davis pulled off a huge upset by beating Nurmagomedov’s teammate Gadzhi Rabadanov in the tournament finals back in August. Unless the promotion opts to go with Archie Colgan (13-0) who remained undefeated after his win on Friday, I think Davis is getting the first crack at Nurmagomedov’s title.
At light heavyweight, I think that the plan is to have Anderson face this year’s World Tournament winner and former PFL champion Antonio Carlos Jr (19-6, 2 NC). I didn’t have Carlos Jr coming out of the tournament this year, but he proved me wrong.
He’s now 8-1 in his last nine fights which includes a win in the PFL championship back in 2021 and the World Tournament championship this year. This feels like the fight to make and I think you’ll see it in early 2026.
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