5 Defining Moments: The PFL in the Middle East

The Professional Fighters League planted its flag in Middle Eastern soil for the first time in 2024, creating new opportunities in a new market. It has proven to be a worthwhile endeavor thus far. The company on Saturday will break ground on its 2025 campaign with PFL Champions Series 1 at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where Usman Nurmagomedov defends his Bellator MMA lightweight championship opposite Paul Hughes in the five-round headliner.

Ahead of the PFL’s latest stop in the Middle East, a look at five of the many moments that have come to define the brief but eventful relationship between the organization and the region:

1. Quick as a Flash

Renan Ferreira made his position in the heavyweight pecking order clear when he needed less than a minute to bury Ryan Bader with punches in the PFL Super Fights “PFL vs. Bellator Champs” main event on Feb. 24, 2024 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The end came just 21 seconds into Round 1. The 6-foot-8 Brazilian floored Bader with a crushing left hand and trailed him to the canvas. From there, Ferreira cut loose with punches—some appeared to stray to the back of “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner’s head—until referee Kerry Hatley had seen enough. It was the fifth sub-minute finish of his career and set the stage for a career-altering opportunity to face the self-professed “Baddest Man on the Planet.”

2. Greatness Personified

Cris Cyborg continued to establish herself as the most accomplished female mixed martial artist of all-time when she took a unanimous decision from Larissa Pacheco and laid claim to the PFL superfight women’s featherweight crown in the PFL Super Fights “Battle of the Giants” co-headliner on Oct. 19, 2024 at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All three cageside judges scored it 49-46. Justino seized the reins with her patented power punching and withstood a harrowing third round that left her battered and bloodied. She reclaimed momentum in the championship rounds, kept the relentless Pacheco at bay and left the cage with her hand raised. Justino has now won titles in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Bellator, the PFL, Strikeforce and Invicta Fighting Championships.

3. As Potent as Ever

It was if he never left. Francis Ngannou returned to the mixed martial arts stage for the first time in nearly three years and did not disappoint, as he wrecked the aforementioned Ferreira with punches in the first round of their PFL Super Fights “Battle of the Giants” main event on Oct. 19, 2024 at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The hotly anticipated clash was over 3:32 after it began. Ngannou executed a takedown along the fence, avoided an attempted triangle choke and unsheathed his ground-and-pound. Ferreira turned away from contact, exposed his back and succumbed to a sustained burst of power punches from the Cameroon-born Frenchman. The decisive victory brought Ngannou the PFL Super Fights heavyweight championship.

4. Never Say Never

Persistence finally paid off for Denis Goltsov. The Russian sambo practitioner laid waste to Oleg Popov in their heavyweight tournament final and cashed a seven-figure paycheck as part of the 2024 PFL Season Championships main card on Nov. 29, 2024 at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Popov lost consciousness in the throes of a triangle choke 2:55 into Round 1. Goltsov succeeded where he had failed in three previous PFL tournaments. Popov struck for a takedown midway through the first round but wandered too deeply into his counterpart’s guard. Goltsov threatened with a triangle, transitioned to an armbar and then returned to the choke. He tightened his squeeze, wrenched down on the back of Popov’s neck and then alerted the referee to the fact that his fellow Russian had gone limp. With that, the stoppage was called. The loss snapped a remarkable 17-fight winning streak for Popov.

5. Liver Queen

Dakota Ditcheva secured validation and quieted her remaining doubters when the undefeated American Top Team star put away Taila Santos with a series of brutal body blows and captured the women’s flyweight crown in the second round of their 2024 PFL Season Championships co-headliner on Nov. 29, 2024 at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Finished for the first time in her 26-fight career, Santos checked out 4:41 into Round 2. Ditcheva set the tone across the first five minutes, as she stonewalled repeated takedown attempts from the Brazilian and started the process of piling up points and punishment with surgical strikes. Santos soon wore down from damage. Ditcheva doubled over the UFC veteran with a clean left hook to the liver late in the second round, then followed it with two more unabated shots to the ribs to prompt the stoppage.