In his biggest fight to date, Paul Hughes rose to the occasion at PFL's Battle Of The Giants by defeating AJ McKee via split decision.
The Irishman was confident that he was ready for this big step up and he delivered on the world's stage by proving that he belongs as the top of the lightweight division.
Hughes got the better of many of the striking exchanges and though McKee did land several takedowns, he wasn't able to produce anything too significant on the ground.
Come the end of the fight, "Big News" said in his post-fight interview that he was fairly confident that he had done enough despite the judges being split on the outcome:
"It's hard when you're actually doing the fighting to know the score. Judging from the energy around the arena, everyone I was looking at and AJ's face, I think it was pretty clear that I won that one. I mean there wasn't once where he nearly got me out of there, I nearly had him out of there a few times."
Hughes has been a very highly touted rising contender for some time now but an opponent like McKee wasn't just a step up, it was a real acid test for him.
Now he finds himself skyrocketing right to the top of the lightweight division, skipping over the ladder climb that could have taken up at least another year of his career.
"Damn right! The PFL believed in me and look at me now. Look at me now. I'm here on the world stage, I took the risk, I fought one of the best guys on the planet. Here I am, a young kid from rural Ireland on the big stage, I believed and I double downed on myself."
Hughes ended his post-fight interview by calling out the current champion, Usman Nurmagomedov, for what would be a massive clash for the Bellator gold:
"One more thing, at the end of the day, we all know who we want to see next. We want to see Ireland versus Dagestan number two. We want to see Paul Hughes versus Usman Nurmagomedov for the Bellator lightweight belt and I think we should do it in Dubai or else let's bring it to Belfast, let's go!"
Watch the full interview below:
