A Star Is Born
Paul Hughes is a man of his word it seems. The Irishman followed through on his promise to “shock the world” when he beat AJ McKee at the PFL “Battle of the Giants” event in Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening.
“Big News” went into the main card opener in Riyadh as a sizeable underdog against the former Bellator featherweight champion and proceeded to bag the most significant victory of his career.
Former Cage Warriors champion Hughes signed with the PFL earlier this year after becoming a free agent. After fielding offers from most of the big players in the game, the Irishman was swayed by the promise of a place in next year’s $1 million global lightweight tournament.
This victory over McKee might have come as a surprise for the bookmakers but not for Hughes himself. “I think I hurt him pretty bad” he told the Bellator social media team after the fight. “Two of them knees almost took his head clean off… (I) just missed that knee in the first round it would have put him out cold.
Hughes had been calling his shot for a second-round knockout all week and he went into more depth on his prediction. “I predicted the right knee” he said. “You watch…I’m going to release a vlog this week. All this camp we were working that right knee and I almost killed him with it but you know what? I still dropped him I think two or three other times. Almost got him out of there…ahhh it was so close”.
Unwavering Self Belief
“(It) wasn’t my best camp” Hughes conceded, “I was pretty tired in there, I had to dig deep. But look, I got the job done. I shocked the world but I’ll tell you who I didn’t shock…my team and my training partners because they know how damn good I am and there’s a reason I talk like this”.
“IRELAND VS. DAGESTAN 2 – LETS F**KING GO!” 😳
Paul Hughes reacts to defeating AJ McKee and calls out Usman Nurmagomedov.#PFLSuperFights pic.twitter.com/MHDF1I83b7
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) October 20, 2024
Following such a massive statement victory, the Derry native has his eyes firmly set on the Bellator lightweight champion. “We all know who’s next…(Usman) Nurmagomedov” he said. “Who’s done that to AJ McKee? Absolutely nobody. You’re next, in Dubai…Ireland vs Dagestan number two…let’s fucking go!”
Proving The Doubters Wrong
After getting off to a winning start in the promotion by finishing Bobby King at the Bellator Champions Series event in Dublin in June, Hughes faced a massive step up in competition this time around. Prior to Saturday, McKee had lost only once (against Patricio Pitbull) in 23 professional outings and not many gave the Fight Academy Ireland man much of a chance, including PFL Europe’s head of fighter operations, Dan Hardy.
“Look I’ll be honest” said Hardy while speaking to Petesy Carroll on the latest episode of The Craic in the lead up to the fight. “I’m still not convinced, right? That’s why we’re all going to be tuning in this weekend…to see if he’s ready for AJ McKee. We have a fighter ops team and we discuss these match ups, and when that first came up I was like, ‘Man, that’s a big jump up for Paul Hughes”.
Former UFC two-weight world champion Conor McGregor took to social media to congratulate his fellow Irishman.
What a mega win for “Big News” @paulhughesmma! Solidified! Bravo bro, well in! 🗞️
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 19, 2024
This victory over such a tenured, accomplished opponent does a lot more for Paul Hughes than simply solidify his status as one of the most promising prospects in the world of mixed martial arts. The Irishman is now in the mix to compete for some of the biggest prizes in the game thanks to his unwavering self-belief and, as the title of his YouTube vlog series had promised, he has indeed shocked the world.
