{"id":36789,"date":"2026-02-12T17:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/PFL-MENA-Season-3-Tourney-to-Kick-Off-in-Saudi-Arabia-on-May-8-200110"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:36:14","slug":"pfl-mena-season-3-tourney-to-kick-off-in-saudi-arabia-on-may-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/pfl-mena-season-3-tourney-to-kick-off-in-saudi-arabia-on-may-8\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL MENA Season 3 Tourney to Kick Off in Saudi Arabia on May 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The Persian Gulf will once again be the focus of a $100K
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> tournament in a few months.<\/p>\n

Per a press release received on Thursday, the PFL will be
\ncommencing its next and third season of the PFL MENA spinoff league
\ncome May 8. The first of four events held in the Middle East\/North
\nAfrica regions will be staged at the Dharan Expo in Khobar, Saudi
\nArabia, and it will receive the title of \u201cRise of the Gulf.\u201d While
\nlast year included four brackets for tourneys in the welterweight,
\nlightweight, featherweight and bantamweight divisions, the company
\nscales it back to three for this go-round. In lieu of 135-pounders
\nwill be what the promotion is calling \u201ca slate of high-profile
\nshowcase bouts featuring the region\u2019s fastest-rising stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The tournament will begin one day before last year\u2019s, when May 9
\nserved as the kickoff date for the grand prix that also opened in
\nSaudi Arabia. Spanning that date to Dec. 5, four athletes picked up
\n$100K checks and a chance to progress to the organization\u2019s Global
\nleague. Those four men were Mohammad
\nAlaqraa<\/a>, Salah
\nEddine Hamli<\/a>, Islam Reda<\/a>
\nand Nawras
\nAbzakh<\/a>; the latter three all prevailed by stoppage to win it
\nall in their division. Of those four, Hamli will be headlining the
\nfirst installment of the 2026 tournament series, against an
\nopponent yet to be announced.<\/p>\n

Fresh Faces, Furious Fights<\/h2>\n

In addition to the aforementioned Hamli, the organization announced
\nthat two other names would be slated for the billing, also against
\ncurrently unknown adversaries. Local competitor and 2023 Saudi
\nGames victor Ahmed
\nAlbrahim<\/a> will be making his professional debut on the card. The
\nman who goes by the name of \u201cSaudi Hulk\u201d is coming off a win in the
\nfinal 2025 MENA show when he punched out fellow amateur Mohamed
\nNabil<\/a> at 170 pounds. The PFL has also retained the services of Brave Combat Federation<\/a> staple Hamza
\nKooheji<\/a>, who was with the Brave FC organization since their
\nvery first event in 2016. The Bahraini featherweight leaves that
\nleague behind posting a record of 9-3 under its banner, with his
\nlast appearance at Brave\u2019s 100th show last November.<\/p>\n

Finally, PFL revealed on a separate Instagram<\/a> post
\nthat 2025 featherweight finalist Yanis
\nGhemmouri<\/a> is returning for another crack at the tourney title
\nand a hefty chunk of change. Like the other three athletes
\nmentioned before, Ghemmouri\u2019s upcoming foe has not yet been
\ndetermined. \u201cThe Desert Warrior\u201d departed the confines of the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> after two
\ncrushing losses in 2023 and 2024, where he moved to join the MENA
\nbracket. He won his semifinal match against Izzeddine
\nAl Derbani<\/a>, as his previous two pairings with Al Derbani and
\nAssem
\nGhanem<\/a> slotted him directly into the second-to-last stage of
\nthe tournament. He was ultimately staved off by the aforementioned
\nReda.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\u0641\u0635\u0644 \u062c\u062f\u064a\u062f\u2026 \u0648\u0646\u0641\u0633 \u0627\u0644\u0637\u0645\u0648\u062d \ud83d\udc4a\ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n

PFL MENA 9: The Rise of the Gulf<\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddd3\ufe0f \u0627\u0644\u062c\u0645\u0639\u0629 \u0668 \u0645\u0627\u064a\u0648
\ud83d\udccd \u0645\u0631\u0643\u0632 \u0645\u0639\u0627\u0631\u0636 \u0627\u0644\u0638\u0647\u0631\u0627\u0646\u060c \u0627\u0644\u062e\u0628\u0631<\/p>\n

\u0645\u0648\u0633\u0645 2026 \u064a\u0628\u062f\u0623 \u0647\u0646\u0627 \u0648\u0627\u0644\u0631\u062d\u0644\u0629 \u0645\u0633\u062a\u0645\u0631\u0629 \ud83d\ude80#PFLMENA9<\/a>
\n
\n#PFLMENA2026<\/a>
\n#TheRiseOfTheGulf<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Nixcjm8EEt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 PFL MENA (@PFLMENA)
\nFebruary 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Persian Gulf will once again be the focus of a $100K Professional Fighters League tournament in a few months. Per a press release received on Thursday, the PFL will be commencing its next and third season of the PFL MENA spinoff league come May 8. The first of four events held in the Middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}