Paul Hughes: Usman Nurmagomedov refused to rematch me, was 'on death's door' in first bout

USA Today

a day ago

Paul Hughes is adamant Usman Nurmagomedov tried everything to avoid rematching him.
Hughes (14-2) was edged out by Nurmagomedov (19-0) in a majority decision loss in the PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai headliner this past January. Nurmagomedov wasn't keen on an immediate rematch, wanting Hughes to earn his way back by notching at least a few more wins.
The 28-year-old rebounded with a big 42-second knockout of Bruno Miranda in May, and that was enough to get him his desired rematch. The pair will fight again for the lightweight title Oct. 3 in the PFL Champions Series: Dubai main event, but Hughes believes Nurmagomedov was pressured into the rematch.
"To cut to the chase, Usman was just refusing to fight me, and that is just the reality," Hughes said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "The reality is he was just straight refusing to fight me, and they probably had to look for other options, but then I think push comes to shove and they were like, 'No, this is happening,' and here we are. The fight is done."
Hughes explained how the rematch ended up coming together.
"Probably because he doesn't want to get absolutely battered," Hughes laughed. "No, to be truthful, I think there were clips of him that went up after the night that we fought, and it was like, 'Oh, Paul needs to win two, three, four more fights until we fight again.' So, I think he kind of gave away his mindset there. Then it kind of got to the point where I had heard that they wanted to do this rematch, then I was like, what's going on here? I just need to go to the source and find out what's happening, and I literally just texted myself on Instagram and I was like, 'This rematch needs to happen. Now.'
"This was just after I KO'd Bruno, and he wrote back saying, 'You need to win one more fight, brother. I didn't know that guy. You need to win one more fight.' It took so long to actually get it done, and I think he was still just straight refusing to fight me, but ultimately he is not bigger than the company. And as I say, credit to the PFL for getting this fight done. I will deliver absolutely once again, and I plan to get that belt and keep that belt for a long time."
Despite Nurmagomedov being deducted a point for accidental low blows in Round 3, two judges scored their first fight 48-46 in his favor, while the other had it a 47-47 draw. Hughes thought he did enough to win the fight, and points to the accidental head clash, which split him open in Round 4, as the momentum changer.
"I was in that cage with him, and I know that I had broke him," Hughes said. "I know that he was basically on death's door towards the end of that fight. Had that head clash not happened towards the very end of the fourth round where he got a full three-minute recovery, there is absolutely no chance that he was going to do another full six minutes with me, and me not finish him."