This Friday, two of the best featherweights on the planet will clash in the main event of the Professional Fighter’s League 2024 Championship. Rounding out a night packed with five other title bouts, Brendan Loughnane and Timur Khizriev will square off for the chance at attaining not only life-changing money in the form of a massive $1 million prize, but also a highly-coveted PFL championship belt. Both men have remained perfect over the course of their regular season and playoff runs, with Loughnane acquiring two stoppage wins and Khizriev smothering the competition with three decision wins in a row.
After winning the PFL 2022 145-lb. tournament in 2022, Loughnane (30-5 MMA, 12-2 PFL) looked to be a heavy favorite to take home the million-dollar check once again in 2023. That was until a first round knockout loss to Jesus Pinedo in the regular season saw him be eliminated from the competition. This caused him to unfortunately wait on the sidelines for nearly an entire year while Pinedo went on to win the season. Oddly enough, the KO finish marked the first time the 34-year-old had ever lost an outing to the cage by strikes in his more than 30 fight career up until that point.
That year waiting in the wings didn’t seem to dull his fighting spirit, however, as the Englishman wasted no time in impressing in his 2024 debut by finishing Pedro Carvalho with strikes in less than a round. He then followed this up by recording his second stoppage victory in a row over Justin Gonzales after cutting open the American’s forehead with a devastating knee, ultimately forcing the cageside doctor to wave off the contest. This two fight win streak propelled Loughnane into a competitive title eliminator matchup with Kai Kamaka III two months later, which Loughnane barely prevailed in with a competitive split decision win over the Hawaiian.
Going a perfect 3-0 in Bellator before the company was eventually molded into the PFL, Khizriev (17-0 MMA, 3-0 PFL) dominantly stormed his way through his first few matches in the featherweight tournament. On his way to scoring his spot in the tournament finals, the Makhachkala native breezed past veteran fighters in Brett Johns and Enrique Barzola. He also (just like Loughnane) claimed a back-and-forth split decision to punch his ticket to the bracket’s championship bout, defeating the hard-hitting Gabriel Braga by the skin of his teeth.
For Loughnane, getting his hand raised this Friday afternoon would be the perfect way to cap off a spectacular comeback after being so roughly dispatched last year. He’d also cement his place in company history as only the second man to win the PFL Featherweight Championship twice after Lance Palmer, who earned the strap in both 2018 and 2019.
Amongst a growing surge of elite-level fighters from Dagestan, Khizriev appears to be the next in line for MMA greatness should he manage to do away with his English adversary. The victory would make him one of the few individuals from his country to ever earn a championship title in a major organization, joining the likes of Movlid Khaybulaev, Ali Isaev, and Magomed Magomedkerimov who all had PFL gold wrapped around their waist at one point.
