Renan Ferreira Books UAE Warriors Debut July 23 on Fight Pass

Renan Ferreira (13-6, 3 NC MMA, 7-4, 3 NC PFL) will be fighting in MMA this summer, and he'll be doing so in a new promotion. The 2023 PFL Heavyweight Champion hasn't won a fight in over two years' time. On Feb. 24, 2024, he appeared in PFL vs. Bellator's main event versus Ryan Bader (31-8, 1 NC MMA, 0-1 PFL,) taking 21 seconds off of the first-round clock to secure the victory with a barrage of strikes.

From there, Ferreira turned his focus to an Oct. 19, 2024 fight against Francis Ngannou, with the latter scoring a stoppage victory by ground and pound in round one. This was the first in an ongoing three-fight losing streak for the former champion at 265.

Most recently, he made his 14th appearance in the PFL on its May 2 event in Sioux Falls, SD. Sergey Bilostenniy served as his adversary that Saturday night. Although Ferreira and Bilostenniy got to the third round of action, the latter scored a knockout.

Renan Ferreira Heads to UAE Warriors for 23rd Career Appearance on July 23

With Ferreira now having dropped three contests in succession, his next steps in the world of MMA remained a question until earlier Tuesday. USA Today's MMA Junkie reported that Renan Ferreira had landed the co-main event spot on the July 23 UAE Warriors 72 card.

Space42 Arena is the setting for the show. As with all UAE Warriors events, UAE Warriors 72 will be seen gavel-to-gavel on UFC Fight Pass.

On the other side of the cage that Thursday night is Khusein Adamov (14-3-1 MMA.) With no title at stake in this co-headlining fight, it will be a three-round affair at five minutes per round.

Renan Ferreira Facing Tough Test in Khusein Adamov July 23 in Abu Dhabi

While Renan Ferreira has dropped three fights in a row, his next opponent provides a daunting task. Khusein Adamov, the former Naiza Fighting Championships Heavyweight Champion, enters UAE Warriors 72 on July 23 having posted a record of 3-1-1 in his last five MMA fights. 

On May 3, 2025, Adamov fought to a split draw versus Yerlan Shakishev (3-0-1 MMA) after 25 minutes of action in NFC 72. With Adamov holding the champion's advantage going into that night's title fight upon winning the heavyweight strap in October of 2022 versus Sergey Zubkov (5-6 MMA) via unanimous decision, he defended the title by virtue of the draw against Shakishev.

Prior to Adamov's draw with Shakishev, he'd been defeated by fifth-round knockout due to a knee strike from Viktor Nemkov (35-10-1 MMA) in March of 2024. Nemkov, is like Renan Ferreira, a PFL alumnus, having finished his tenure with the promotion with a 2-0-1 mark during its 2019 season.

Examining Khusein Adamov's, Renan Ferreira's Stats Ahead of Fight July 23

Numerically speaking, Khusein Adamov is known to score the victory inside the distance more often than not when the cage door closes and the command to fight is given inside the cage on a given evening. Of Adamov's 14 professional victories in the sport of MMA, he's recorded 12 wins by stoppage.

This accounts for an 86 percent finishing rate, with seven of those finishes coming by way of knockout. Comparatively, Renan Ferreira has stopped his opponents with a greater frequency going into UAE Warriors 72 later on in the month.

The one nicknamed "Problema" has proven to be just that for opposing fighters. Ferreira has completed the victory before the final horn has blared 93 percent of the time, with an 85 percent knockout rate.