2024 PFL Championships: King Saud University Stadium; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
It came close to running the table with all finishes on the night. But what stopped that was the heart of the 2022 featherweight champion, Brendan Loughnane. But in making it to the judge’s scorecards, the decision had been all but announced. He dropped the unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46 2x) to Timur Khizriev. His 14th total and seventh in a row. With the final tally of the Russians in control of the night taking four of six titles, three coming from Dagestan.
The now 18-0, 29-year old, gave credit to Loughnane saying:
“Hats off to him, he’s a very tough dude”.
He used five-takedowns and superior grappling to smother the Englishman. But what set that up was his fast pin-point jabs, and uppercuts to keep the pace high. Proof of that is in the numbers as he outstruck him 98-161 to 76-115. Although Loughnane’s face was a total mess he wasn’t going to go quietly into the dark. He valiantly fought back despite what appeared to be a damaged back leg, slowing down any movement out of the striker.
What also hurt Loughnane was trying ill conceived spinning back kicks. Especially against someone that was applying pressure from the getgo. It also once again goes into the category of Loughnane’s real kryptonite, having problems with grapplers. Especially those with super cardio. Outside of the fourth round, it was a completely dominant fight.
Despite being taken down as much as he was, Loughnane did manage to pull something good. He still has yet to be submitted. Although there was no massive danger in that happening here as Khizriev struck him on the ground with the now legal elbows in the PFL.
Russians In Control Of The Company’s Future
Moving forward there is a push by most of the now unemployed former Bellator fighters to be brought in. A fair amount are from Russia (and Brazilians too). So it might get that much harder to obtain a PFL strap and a million dollars.
The other scraps saw:
Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov end the light heavyweight reign of Impa Kasanganay by a first-round fire fight. Shamil Musaev knocking out Magomed Umalatov. Dakota Ditcheva making light work of Taila Santos. Gadzhi Rabadanov flatlining former Bellator champion Brent Primus. And it all started with the fifth time being the charm for Denis Goltsov as he put TEAM-FEDOR pupil Oleg Popov to sleep in the opening round.
Please head over to: Belly Up Sports for all things sports. And everything CYCLONE can be found on: Facebook.
