Title win can bring big nights to Belfast - Hughes

Paul Hughes believes victory over PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov in their 3 October rematch can open the door to a huge stadium fight at home.

Boxing took centre stage in Belfast last weekend with Lewis Crocker winning his rematch against Paddy Donovan in front of 20,000 at Windsor Park, and Hughes wants to "create these big nights" should he come through in Dubai.

The first fight between the pair in January saw Nurmagomedov hang on to his then-Bellator title, and perfect professional record, by way of a majority decision in what was considered a fight of the year contender.

Since then, Hughes has topped the bill at a packed SSE Arena in Belfast, stopping Bruno Miranda in 42 seconds which unlocked the door to the rematch.

"It means the world to be carrying the torch for Irish MMA and it's something I don't take lightly," said the 28-year-old from Lavey.

"What I want to do is create these big nights, not only for myself, but for my team-mates and fellow countrymen to bring big-time MMA to Ireland. You could have 23,000 people in Belfast and I think we could definitely do that."

Huge fight nights in Belfast were a regular fixture during the career of former boxer Carl Frampton and Hughes regards the two-weight champion as an inspiration as he looks to do the same in MMA.

"I really look up to Carl," he added.

"He's a Belfast legend, a two-weight world champion to come out of Ireland and really nice guy too. He's someone I respect and someone I admire for how humble he is."

Before that, he must pass the considerable challenge posed by Nurmagomedov.

The 27-year-old, younger brother of UFC fighter Umar and cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib, said he "underestimated" Hughes in their first fight, but is not planning on making the same mistake again.

"Everything is different this time. I can't imagine how I can lose this fight, " said the defending champion.

"In the first fight I had a bad camp. This is a different Usman from January, so he will have to be ready.

"I know he will be different too. I watched this (first) fight back 10 times. I see a lot of my mistakes, a lot of things I must change and we have worked on them. This fight, I will be better."

Hughes also expects a much better Usman this time around and, although he takes plenty of encouragement from their first fight, is aware he will need to change things to take the win.

He has previous for prevailing in a rematch, beating Jordan Vucenic to take the Cage Warriors featherweight title in 2022 after suffering his first career loss to the Englishman two years earlier, and feels that experience will benefit him against Usman.

"I've five rounds of experience with him, learn what I can from that and implement it on the night," said Hughes.

"I'm under no illusion he will have a different gameplan and better gameplan this time, as will I, so I'm interested to see how that will clash on the night and who will perform better.

"I also have experience from my Cage Warriors days of a rematch for a world title. I've been in this territory before and came out on top."