RIYADH: The Professional Fighters League returns to the Kingdom when PFL Mena 11 takes place at the Global Theater in Boulevard City, Riyadh, on Friday, Oct. 2.<\/p>\n
The card is headlined by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mostafa Nada meeting Egypt\u2019s Osama Elsaidy for a third and final time in a light heavyweight showcase bout. The two first clashed in 2016 with the Desert Force Light Heavyweight Championship on the line, splitting their first two meetings and setting off one of Arab MMA\u2019s most heated rivalries, complete with tense press conferences and weigh-in scuffles. <\/p>\n
For Nada, the bout also marks his return to the cage following a broken arm that sidelined him after his last outing, while Elsaidy looks to settle the score for good with no title, only legacy, on the line.<\/p>\n
Two semifinal bouts will determine who advances toward the PFL Mena Welterweight Championship Final. Morocco\u2019s Badreddine Diani, a Sambo black belt and nine-time African Combat Sambo Champion, meets Jordan\u2019s Hazem Kayyali, a BJJ black belt and two-time World Cup Amateur Champion, in a clash the promotion is billing as veteran experience against rising-star ambition.<\/p>\n
In the other semifinal, Palestine\u2019s Omar Hussein, fresh off a statement knockout in the quarterfinals and training under Arab MMA legend Jarrah Al-Silawi, takes on Algeria\u2019s Abdelkrim Zouad, who shocked the bracket by submitting grappling specialist Wissame Akhmouch at his own game.<\/p>\n
The featherweight tournament semifinals pit two Brave Combat Federation veterans against each other, as Bahrain\u2019s Hamza Kooheji faces Algeria\u2019s Elias Boudegzdame, the first-ever Brave CF Featherweight Champion with 21 career wins, 17 by submission. The other featherweight semifinal sees Tunisia\u2019s Mehdi Saadi, back from a two-year layoff and riding a strong tournament debut, meet Syria\u2019s Shadi Kabbani, the first Syrian fighter ever to compete in PFL Mena.<\/p>\n
Lightweight semifinal action features Algeria\u2019s Ylies Djiroun, who stopped 2025 champion Salah Eddine Hamli by first-round TKO, against Egypt\u2019s alternate-turned-contender Basel Shalaan. Iraq\u2019s Mohammad Fahmi, last year\u2019s runner-up looking to finish what he started, squares off with Egypt\u2019s Ahmed El-Sisy, who has been training wrestling alongside the Egyptian national team ahead of the bout. A showcase lightweight bout rounds out the tournament action as Lebanon\u2019s Hassan Shaaban meets Egypt\u2019s Assem Ghanem, both alternates looking to punch their way back into the bracket.<\/p>\n
The card also features an amateur bantamweight showcase bout as Saudi national Muay Thai Champion Fatima Al-Ammari makes her senior amateur MMA debut against Algerian national boxing champion Aya Lounes. Al-Ammari, a training partner of women\u2019s MMA pioneer Hattan Alsaif, will become only the second Saudi female fighter to compete in MMA for PFL Mena, fulfilling a goal she first voiced as a 16-year-old fan of the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIYADH: The Professional Fighters League returns to the Kingdom when PFL Mena 11 takes place at the Global Theater in Boulevard City, Riyadh, on Friday, Oct. 2. The card is headlined by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mostafa Nada meeting Egypt\u2019s Osama Elsaidy for a third and final time in a light heavyweight showcase bout. The two first …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103315,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103295\/revisions\/103315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}