Caolan Loughran wants to go straight in with the big guns after making his switch from the UFC to the PFL this month.
The Irish star left the UFC after fighting out his four-fight contract, and has opted to head to the Smart Cage to try out next season’s PFL World Tournament. However, before then he is plotting at least two showcase bouts, one of which is expected to be against 2024 European champion Lewis McGrillen.
Featured in this year’s tournament is Jake Hadley, whom Loughran lost to at UFC 304 last summer in his third promotional outing. He could also find his way to a rematch with Taylor Lapilus, the only other man to beat him as a professional, who faces Ali Taleb on July 5 in Brussels.
Caolan Loughran plots three big fights in PFL
After going 2-2 on his initial UFC deal, Caolan Loughran wants to hit the ground running in his new role. Looking to model his run on the success of fellow Irishman Paul Hughes, he plans to take on big fights early, before entering next year’s World Tournament.
“Sergio Pettis, Raufeon Stots and Magomed Magomedov are the three biggest names I would say,” Loughran told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. Pettis is a former Bellator champion, while Magomedov trains with Khabib Nurmagomedov’s team in Dagestan.
“Raufeon isn’t really that big of a name but I think he’s one of the best bantamweights in the world. He got knocked out by Patchy Mix but it was kind of a weird shot the way the knee came up, it could happen to anyone. Then he got spinning backfist-ed in the first five seconds by Merab Dvalishvili, absolutely insane.
“He’s coming up on 38 now, though. I’ve been watching the whole division even before I signed and this year they’ve had the most exciting tournament. I haven’t watched in previous years to this degree but this year it has been world class, apparently the best year so far for the first round.
“Look, I’d fight them all, I’m hoping to make my debut in Brussels on July 5, but I’m watching it all. Even old fights from Pettis against Patchy and Pitbull and all these guys. I’d like to fight Sergio.”
Caolan Loughran clarifies he was not released by UFC amid bidding war
When the UFC Roster Tracker unceremoniously announced that Loughran was no longer with the sport’s top promotion, it led to an influx of messages of support for the Irishman. Having won two including his most recent, it seemed strange to cut a still surging fighter from the roster out of the blue.
In fact, it turns out that it wasn’t the case at all. Loughran signed a standard four-fight deal out of Cage Warriors which saw him bypass Dana White’s Contender Series, and when the deal was up he was subject to a bidding war, opting against pursuing a further deal with the UFC which had yet to crystalize.
“Conversations were getting very positive with Sean Shelby,” he explained, noting that he is keen not to burn any bridges with the promotion given his brother Tiarnan’s lifelong ambition of one day fighting under the UFC banner.
“Then PFL and Dan Hardy came in, and honestly a lot of promotions were in. Some crazy ones, I was offered some big fights including being asked basically ‘how much do you want to fight Muhammad Mokaev on that 971 in Dubai?’
“The way the PFL were talking to me and just basically how they were going to push me and how they could do it, my mind was made up very quick. But I must say it was great craic for five or six days with all these calls coming in.
“But I’m thankful for clearing this up because I had known and basically signed for the PFL and then that UFC Roster Watch broke. I was getting DMs like someone had died in my family ‘I hope you’re okay bro.’ I was like ‘Jesus Christ, all is good’. It’s just the fight game and you roll with it.”