Change of opponent for Saudi fighter Al-Qahtani after PFL MENA weigh-ins
- Abdullah Al-Qahtani meets Jordan’s Yazeed Hasanain in the featherweight main event
- Ali Taleb faces Nawras Abzakh in the bantamweight co-main event
RIYADH: The Professional Fighters League begins the historic inaugural season of PFL MENA (Middle East and North Africa) on Saturday at the Green Halls in Riyadh, with bantamweight and featherweight fighters from the region going head to head.
In the main event, Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al-Qahtani is now set to meet Jordan’s Yazeed Hasanain after Taha Bendaoud did not make the contracted weight. Al-Qahtani weighed in at 66 kg, while Hasanain weighed 66.4 kg.
In the co-main event, Iraq’s Ali Taleb faces Jordan’s Nawras Abzakh in a bantamweight contest. Taleb weighed in at 60.5 kg with Abzakh tipping the scales at 61.4 kg.
Maraoune Bellagouit weighed in at 66.1 kg and now faces Mido Mohamed, who weighed in at 65.8 kg. Bellagouit’s original opponent Motaz Askar was not medically cleared by the commission to compete.
Hattan Alsaif, the first female from Saudi Arabia to sign with a major Mixed Martial Arts promotion, makes her highly anticipated PFL SmartCage debut against Egypt’s Nada Faheem. Alsaif weighed in at 47.1 kg while Faheem was 47.9 kg.
PFL MENA fight card:
Featherweight bout: Abdullah Al-Qahtani vs. Yazeed Hasanain
Bantamweight bout: Ali Taleb vs. Nawras Abzakh
Bantamweight bout: Xavier Alaoui vs. Rachid El Hazoume
Featherweight bout: Islam Reda vs. Adam Meskini
Bantamweight bout: Tariq Ismail vs. Jalal Al Daaja
Bantamweight bout: Elias Boudegzdame vs. Hassan Mandour
Women’s atomweight bout, amateur: Hattan Alsaif vs. Nada Faheem
Featherweight bout: Maraoune Bellagouit vs. Mido Mohamed
Featherweight bout: Ahmed Tarek vs. Abdelrahman Alhyasat
Flyweight bout, amateur: Malik Basahel vs. Harsh Pandya
