Paul Hughes is mad.
In January, Hughes and Usman Nurmagomedov escaped the latter with a majority-decised victory, and in the process they wore an absolute barn burner that maintained the Bellator lightweight title.
Considering how ridiculously competitive and entertaining the fight, everyone was hoping that the PFL would soon announce a rematch. Instead, Hughes was forced to go outside and get another victory. That’s exactly what he did. Bruno Miranda entered the PFL Europe 1 headliner in just 42 seconds at Belfast last month.
The victory appears to solidify Hughes’ position as a first-ranked competitor, but according to Nurmagomedov, the Irish will have to go out and get another W.
“I know now that this guy is about to delay this rematch,” Hughes told MMA Fighting. “I went straight to the f*cking source, so I texted him last week. Did I wonder what was going on now? He said again, ‘You need to win another fight, brother.’ So, looking straight from the sauce there, he’s trying to delay this. ”
Hughes pays tribute to Nurmagomedov and his team, including UFC Hall of Famer and former lightweight title holder Khabib Nurmagomedov, but his patience quickly thins out his patience.
“I was tired of him. I’m tired of all the bullshit he is,” Hughes said. “I might go straight to the source too. From what he said last week, he said, ‘You have to win another fight, brother.’ And at the end of the day he is not the boss of f*cking.
Paul Hughes plans a rematch for Nurmagomedov this fall
Despite all the drama, Hughes is sure that PFL will put together a sequel scrap, whether Nurmagomedov wants it or not.
“The fight clearly has to happen,” Hughes said. “Everyone wants this fight. The PFL wants this fight to happen. Dubai wants this to happen.
“If the fight doesn’t happen, I don’t know why. But I don’t think so. I think it will happen. I think the PFL and the Dubai government have more leverage than one man. So the fight has to happen and will happen in September or October this year.”
Interestingly, the PFL recently announced that the June 20 event in Wichita will feature the battle between Mansour Barnawi and Archie Colgan. The promotion also revealed that “the winner of this battle will become the No. 1 contender for the PFL lightweight world title and will be next in line to face current champion Usman Nurmagomedov.”
Needless to say, Hughes wasn’t funny.
“Hey, I stopped because of anger bait,” Hughes wrote to X in response.