Paul Hughes on Narrow Defeat at Road to Dubai: ‘I Deserve to Have That Belt’

Paul Hughes’ first championship opportunity in Professional Fighters League resulted in a near miss.

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.”

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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