DUBAI: The Professional Fighters League returned to Dubai for a fourth time as PFL Dubai at the Coca-Cola Arena, with spectators witnessing No.3-ranked Sergei Bilostenniy (16-4) take the PFL heavyweight world championship from Vadim Nemkov (20-3) with a hard-fought unanimous decision.
The former training partners had to put their friendship aside for this all-Russian clash where everything was at stake. Bilostenniy survived an early submission scare before using his striking to pick apart and out-point a bloodied Nemkov over the course of the following five rounds.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Vadim Nemkov and Team Fedor. The plan today was to fight and just have fun,” said an elated Bilostenniy. “I used to have a dream where I would call my parents and tell them, ‘Hey, I am a world champion’ … Dreams do come true, keep dreaming, work hard.”
In the co-main event, Belgian superstar and No. 4-ranked Patrick Habirora (10-0) continued his meteoric rise through the division with an emphatic first-round victory over No. 5 Omar El Dafrawy (16-7). While “The Belgian Bomber” is known for his KO power, Habirora’s grappling with a standing guillotine choke rendered El Dafrawy unconscious and registered his first career win — and El Dafrawy’s first loss — by submission. This bring Habirora’s tally of straight first-round finishes to five.…
