{"id":37881,"date":"2026-04-23T21:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/PFL-heads-to-San-Diego-in-June-AJ-McKee-faces-unbeaten-foe-in-headliner-200940"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:33:19","slug":"pfl-heads-to-san-diego-in-june-a-j-mckee-faces-unbeaten-foe-in-headliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/pfl-heads-to-san-diego-in-june-a-j-mckee-faces-unbeaten-foe-in-headliner\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL heads to San Diego in June; A.J. McKee faces unbeaten foe in headliner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> is making its first trip to the
\ncity discovered by the Germans in 1904, one named after a whale\u2019s
\n[redacted].<\/p>\n

Initially claimed by Spain in the 1500s with a mission built there
\nin the 1700s, the Californian city was admitted along with the rest
\nof the state to the U.S. in 1850. That would San Diego, the staging
\nground of the PFL card on June 27. Fights will play out inside of
\nthe Pechanga Arena in the organization\u2019s first jaunt to California
\nsince PFL 9 2018. The promotion confirmed<\/a>
\nthis date for the first June date it has marked on the calendar, as
\nwell as one fight on its billing.<\/p>\n

\n

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

A world class
\nwelterweight clash headlines PFL Sioux Falls: Tune in Saturday, May
\n2 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Serving in the main attraction of
\nPFL San Diego<\/a> is a potential featherweight title eliminator\u2014the
\ndivision has no champion, so the victor may be in line for the next
\ncrack at gold. Former Bellator MMA<\/a> champ A.J. McKee<\/a>
\n(24-2) will collide with Salamat
\nIsbulaev<\/a> (10-0) in their three-round main attraction.<\/p>\n

Home grown vs. hired help<\/h2>\n

When combining that of PFL and parent company Bellator, McKee has a
\nwealth of experience over foe Isbulaev. All 26 of McKee\u2019s pro
\nouting have come with one brand or the other, a sharp contract to
\nKazakhstan-repping Isbulaev. The latter made his organizational
\ndebut in February, forcing highly regarded Jesus
\nPinedo<\/a> to tap to strikes at the end of the first round.<\/p>\n

McKee\u2019s lone two pro losses came on the scorecards to Patricio
\nFreire<\/a> and Paul Hughes<\/a>
\nin 2022 and 2024, respectively. In that same stretch of time, \u201cThe
\nMercenary\u201d has bested names including Adam
\nBorics<\/a>, Clay
\nCollard<\/a>, Akhmed
\nMagomedov<\/a> and Roberto
\nSatoshi de Souza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Opponent Isbulaev has not only never lost, but he has only gone to
\na second round once in his professional career. He otherwise sports
\nnine first-round stoppages\u2014with a nearly even distribution of
\nknockouts to tapouts. On the other side of the equation, McKee has
\nentered Round 2 or later in all but one of his last eight
\nbouts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\ud835\udde6\ud835\uddd4\ud835\udde1 \ud835\uddd7\ud835\udddc\ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddda\ud835\udde2 \u203c\ufe0f\ud835\uddda\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde7 \ud835\udde5\ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddd4\ud835\uddd7\ud835\uddec \u2757\ufe0f<\/p>\n

The \u201cMercenary\u201d @ajmckee101<\/a>
\nreturns against undefeated Salamat Isbulaev in a huge Featherweight
\nMain Event set to go down at the @PechangaArenaSD<\/a>
\non Saturday, June 27th<\/p>\n

Sign up to get access for the
\n#PFLSanDiego<\/a> Pre-Sale now. The\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/7p5MVR813t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 PFL (@PFLMMA)
\nApril 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

The Professional Fighters League is making its first trip to the city discovered by the Germans in 1904, one named after a whale\u2019s [redacted]. Initially claimed by Spain in the 1500s with a mission built there in the 1700s, the Californian city was admitted along with the rest of the state to the U.S. in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37881","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\/37881","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=37881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}