Outside Source
Per a press release received on Thursday, the PFL will be commencing its next and third season of the PFL MENA spinoff league come May 8. The first of four events held in the Middle East/North Africa regions will be staged at the Dharan Expo in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and it will receive the title of “Rise of the Gulf.” While last year included four brackets for tourneys in the welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight divisions, the company scales it back to three for this go-round. In lieu of 135-pounders will be what the promotion is calling “a slate of high-profile showcase bouts featuring the region’s fastest-rising stars.”
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The tournament will begin one day before last year’s, when May 9 served as the kickoff date for the grand prix that also opened in Saudi Arabia. Spanning that date to Dec. 5, four athletes picked up $100K checks and a chance to progress to the organization’s Global league. Those four men were Mohammad Alaqraa, Salah Eddine Hamli, Islam Reda and Nawras Abzakh; the latter three all prevailed by stoppage to win it all in their division. Of those four, Hamli will be headlining the first installment of the 2026 tournament series, against an opponent yet to be announced.
Fresh Faces, Furious Fights
In addition to the aforementioned Hamli, the organization announced that two other names would be slated for the billing, also against currently unknown adversaries. Local competitor and 2023 Saudi Games victor Ahmed Albrahim will be making his professional debut on the card. The man who goes by the name of “Saudi Hulk” is coming off a win in the final 2025 MENA show when he punched out fellow amateur Mohamed Nabil at 170 pounds.
The PFL has also retained the services of Brave Combat Federation staple Hamza Kooheji, who was with the Brave FC organization since their very first event in 2016. The Bahraini featherweight leaves that league behind posting a record of 9-3 under its banner, with his last appearance at Brave’s 100th show last November.
Finally, PFL revealed on a separate Instagram post that 2025 featherweight finalist Yanis Ghemmouri is returning for another crack at the tourney title and a hefty chunk of change. Like the other three athletes mentioned before, Ghemmouri’s upcoming foe has not yet been determined. “The Desert Warrior” departed the confines of the Ultimate Fighting Championship after two crushing losses in 2023 and 2024, where he moved to join the MENA bracket. He won his semifinal match against Izzeddine Al Derbani, as his previous two pairings with Al Derbani and Assem Ghanem slotted him directly into the second-to-last stage of the tournament. He was ultimately staved off by the aforementioned Reda.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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