{"id":827733,"date":"2025-02-17T12:12:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/17\/pfl-free-fight-usman-nurmagomedov-edges-out-paul-hughes-to-defend-lightweight-title\/"},"modified":"2025-02-17T12:12:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:12:47","slug":"pfl-free-fight-usman-nurmagomedov-edges-out-paul-hughes-to-defend-lightweight-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/17\/pfl-free-fight-usman-nurmagomedov-edges-out-paul-hughes-to-defend-lightweight-title\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL free fight: Usman Nurmagomedov edges out Paul Hughes to defend lightweight title"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-2802178\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2025-02-04T07:00:12-05:00\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"dateModified\" content=\"2025-02-04T00:13:56-05:00\"><\/p>\n<header>\n<div>\n<p><span><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fQQNuWzIuBo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div itemprop=\"author\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<p><span>February 4, 2025 7:00 am ET<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"content-container\">\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/tag\/usman-nurmagomedov\">Usman Nurmagomedov<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/tag\/paul-hughes\">Paul Hughes<\/a> went toe-to-toe in what many consider to be the best fight in PFL history.<\/p>\n<p>The two met in the main event of <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/events\/pfl-champions-series-dubai-nurmagomedov-vs-hughes\">PFL Road to Dubai Champions Series<\/a> at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. After 25 minutes, Nurmagomedov (19-0) got his hand raised with a majority decision over Hughes (13-2). Although many online have disputed the judges\u2019 scoring since, what\u2019s certain is that it was a highly competitive and entertaining fight.<\/p>\n<p>You can watch the full replay of the fight above.<\/p>\n<p>With the result, Nurmagomedov kept his unbeaten record intact and retained the title of a now-defunct Bellator promotion. It is unclear how PFL will handle his championship status as it begins to consolidate the titles. Hughes suffered the second defeat of his pro career, ending a seven-fight winning streak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><i><span dir=\"ltr\">Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mmajunkie\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> page and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MMAJunkieOfficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a> channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MMA Junkie Staff<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/2025\/02\/pfl-full-fight-video-usman-nurmagomedov-vs-paul-hughes-lightweight-title\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 4, 2025 7:00 am ET Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes went toe-to-toe in what many consider to be the best fight in PFL history. The two met in the main event of PFL Road to Dubai Champions Series at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. After 25 minutes, Nurmagomedov (19-0) got his hand raised with a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":827734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1632,35817],"tags":[8682,45780],"class_list":{"0":"post-827733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fight","8":"category-usman","9":"tag-fight","10":"tag-usman"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}