Paul
Hughes’ first championship opportunity in
Professional Fighters League resulted in a near miss.
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The Irish standout suffered a closely-contested majority decision
defeat in a lightweight title bout against reigning champion
Usman
Nurmagomedov in the
Road to Dubai headliner on Saturday at the Coca-Cola Arena in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In the immediate aftermath of the
fight, Hughes gave his thoughts on the ruling and his overall
performance.
“We all thought I won that one,” Hughes said in a video on
Instagram. “I think the judges’ scorecards were pretty ridiculous.
But I’ll watch it back with a clear mind. I’m just judging from the
energy of the arena and everyone surrounding the cage that thought
it was mine. I’m not going to make excuses, though. I should’ve
pushed harder. And I will the next time. I know we’ll fight
again.”
“Big News” pointed to a pause in the action that occurred due to an
accidental clash of heads in Round 4 as a potentially a key
momentum shift in the fight.
“I felt like the stoppage in the fourth round with the head clash,
changed the momentum of the fight,” Hughes said. “I feel like I was
breaking him. I was ripping him so hard to the body and I felt him
wheezing. I knew my momentum was coming on and I would’ve emptied
the tank, but that changed the flow and he got recovery. Which,
look, the head butt was a head butt. It was accidental. He has all
the right to take that recovery.”
Overall, Hughes can take away plenty of positives after going
toe-to-toe with Nurmagomedov for 25 minutes, but he didn’t achieve
his ultimate goal.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” Hughes said. “I’m gutted. I’m proud
of myself, but I need to get that back. I deserve to have that
belt.”