🔥🇹🇳 MEHDI SAADI L’EMPORTE À LA DÉCISION
PARTAGÉE DANS CE MAIN EVENT !!🤩 Grâce à cette victoire, il se qualifie en demi-finale du tournoi
des -66kg du PFL MENA ! pic.twitter.com/cjeP7zXSXn— RMC Sport Combat (@RMCSportCombat)
May 24, 2026
The
Professional Fighters League MENA returned on Sunday, as fights
in the lightweight and featherweight tournaments took center
stage.
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The
PFL MENA 9 main event was a featherweight quarterfinal fight
between Mohammad
Yahya and Mehdi
Saadi. Both men came out looking to strike, with Saadi (7-2)
landing hard leg kicks and Yahya (12-7) using his longer reach to
find success at distance. The legs of “The UAE Warrior” were
heavily damaged as the fight went on, but Yahya never stopped
coming forward and throwing punches. After 15 minutes of
back-and-forth striking, the judges preferred the work of Saadi,
who took a split decision with scores of 30-27, 27-30 and 29-28.
With the victory, the French fighter will take on Hamza
Kooheji in the semifinals.
The co-main event saw lightweights Salah
Eddine Hamli and Ylies
Djiroun go to battle. The sharp striking of Djiroun (25-9) kept
the fight interesting at a distance. Hamli (11-1) was able to find
some slight success in the clinch, but couldn’t get his opponent to
the ground. Once he had space to work, Djiroun’s superior striking
came through
as body shots folded Hamli, who was promptly pounded out by “Broly.” The TKO stoppage officially came at 4:20 of Round 1, and
Hamli will now fight Basel
Ahmed Shalaan in the semifinals.
Kooheji and Taha
Bendaoud clashed with a spot in the featherweight semifinals on
the line. Kooheji (15-4) used his superior wrestling to constantly
keep “Atlas Lion” on his back. Unable to get back to his feet often
or attack with submissions, Bendaoud (5-2) dropped a clear-cut
decision after being controlled for 15 minutes as all judges scored
the fight 29-28 in favor of his opponent.
In a featured amateur strawweight fight, Zamzam Al
Hammadi took on Abeer
Mansour Anwar Hassan. It was a grappling-heavy affair that
favored Al Hammadi, as she threatened with several tight
submissions. Hassan showed a lot of heart in surviving nine minutes
and winning the third round with hard punches on the feet.
Ultimately, Al Hammadi advanced to 10-0 as an amateur and took a
decision with a trio of 29-28 scorecards in her favor.
The scheduled main card opener between Assem
Ghanem and Mohammad
Fahmi was canceled due to an injury to Ghanem. As a result,
Fahmi will advance in the lightweight tournament and take on
Ahmed
El Sisy, who was victorious in his preliminary fight.
PFL MENA 9 preliminary results:
In preliminary action, Shalaan dominated Abdullah
Saleem over three rounds to take a decision win with scores of
30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in his favor; El Sisy took a split decision
over Harda Karim
after 15 minutes of action with scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28;
Saher
Qasmieh took a split decision over Hamad
Marhoon with two of the three 29-28 scorecards being in his
favor; Ahmed
Albrahim overwhelmed Ibrahim
Mahmoud with
an onslaught of punches to win his pro debut by TKO at 2:47 of
the third round; Butti
Suwaid Alameri outworked fellow amateur featherweight Hamada
Mohamed Osman to take home three 30-27 scorecards in the
opening fight.