Nurmagomedov to Defend Lightweight Belt Against Davis in Dubai
PFL has announced its first main event of 2026 — a Lightweight Championship showdown set to headline PFL Road to Dubai.
The promotion returns to the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on Saturday, February 7th, with the event scheduled to stream on the ESPN app.
In the main event, unbeaten PFL Lightweight Champion Usman Nurmagomedov will defend his title against 2025 Global Lightweight Tournament champion Alfie “The Axe Man” Davis.
Nurmagomedov comes from the famed lineage that produced UFC greats Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev. After capturing and twice defending the Bellator Lightweight Championship, the Dagestani star transitioned into the PFL ecosystem following Bellator’s dissolution in 2025. This past year, he engaged in a heated rivalry with Paul Hughes, producing two high-level, action-packed fights that were widely considered the PFL’s Rivalry of the Year.
England’s Alfie Davis emerged as one of the biggest breakout stars of 2025. Entering the Global Lightweight Tournament as a dark horse, Davis flipped the bracket upside down. He shocked the quarterfinals with a first-round stoppage of Clay Collard, then rode that momentum to consecutive upset wins over former Bellator champion Brent Primus in the semifinals and Gadzhi Rabadanov in the finals — securing his place as the tournament winner and earning his first crack at PFL gold.
The card will also feature a high-stakes welterweight clash between two undefeated contenders, as the last Bellator Welterweight Champion Ramazan Kuramagomedov meets Shamil Musaev, the 2024 PFL season welterweight champion.
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