Gadzhi Rabadanov, fresh off winning the 2024 PFL lightweight tournament, discusses his return to the promotion, his striking improvements, and his aspirations for 2025.
Fresh off winning the lightweight tournament at the 2024 PFL World Championship, Gadzhi Rabadanov spoke with MMA KO’s Drew Beaupré about competing in his first full PFL season, Usman Nurmagomedov ’s Bellator title defense in Dubai, and what fans can expect from him in 2025.
Rabadanov collected his first PFL win back in 2019 but was unable to complete that season’s tournament, and after the promotion purchased Bellator he immediately jumped at the chance to return to the PFL and claim both the 2024 lightweight belt and a $1 Million check. Rabadanov cashed in on his return to the PFL after the promotion purchased Bellator. “I feel like rich boy,” Rabadanov said with a laugh. ' is great, I’m very happy. It was very long road for me, this my dream, now I’m champion…Right after the merger, I pretty much asked to go back with the PFL, ‘cause I had unfinished business there. Usman is the champion in Bellator, so in order to avoid any conflicts I decided to go with PFL full and asked my manager to sign me up, and that’s where I ended up and that played out well.” A pair of decisions over Solomon Renfro and the formerly undefeated Elvin Espinoza secured a playoff spot for Rabadanov, and in the semifinal and final lightweight matchups he made a major statement with his first stoppage-wins since 2019.“After my Bellator career, I had five decision wins over there. I realized that yeah, I need to work on my striking. And even before the season started I’d been working hard on my striking, then through the whole season. The first fight with Renfro I was throwing, in the second round I was trying a little bit, same with Espinoza, but didn’t quite pan out. And then later on during the year I was working harder and harder on my boxing, and then you saw that play out with Primus and obviously in the semifinals as well. So I’m gonna keep working on my striking, and that’s for me the priority right no
GADZHI RABADANOV PFL USMAN NURMAGOMEDOV BELLATOR MMA
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