{"id":38028,"date":"2026-05-01T16:57:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Why-former-PFL-champ-Gadzhi-Rabadanov-isnt-chasing-title-shot-201033"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:57:53","slug":"why-former-pfl-champ-gadzhi-rabadanov-isnt-chasing-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/why-former-pfl-champ-gadzhi-rabadanov-isnt-chasing-title-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Why former PFL champ Gadzhi Rabadanov isn\u2019t chasing title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

For the past two years, Gadzhi
\nRabadanov<\/a> has been a staple in the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a>\u2019s lightweight division, competing
\nin back-to-back tournaments, winning in the 2024 PFL Season.
\nAlthough he came up short last year, losing in the championship to
\nAlfie
\nDavis<\/a>, Rabadanov is ready to move forward and get back to being
\nthe best version of himself under the new format with sans
\ntournament and new division rankings.<\/p>\n

Rabadanov returns to action May 2 at
\nPFL Sioux Falls<\/a> in a co-main event showdown against former PFL
\nEurope champion Aleksandr
\nChizov<\/a>, a big time matchup for both parties. Speaking to
\nSherdog.com ahead of his fight, Rabadanov expressed his excitement
\nfor the change in format, as well as his approach for his path back
\ninto the title picture.<\/p>\n

\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m excited; after I had surgery, I rested, recovered and now I\u2019m
\nvery healthy,\u201d Rabadanov said. I\u2019m very excited to be back in the
\ncage again. I think the time off since my last fight has helped me.
\nIn the last two years, it was so hard. A lot of fighting, a lot of
\nweight cutting, and now eight months after surgery, I\u2019m back and
\nit\u2019s helped me. I feel good, I feel rested and I\u2019m ready. I\u2019m
\nhungry like I was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

After winning the 2024 PFL lightweight tournament, Rabadanov
\nsurprised some by entering the tournament this past year, but he
\nwas determined to keep showcasing his greatness. Now that the
\ntournaments are a thing of the past, Rabadanov is grateful for the
\nexperience, but happy to be able to move at his own pace moving
\nforward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good experience for me, but it was so hard. If the PFL
\ndid this again, I would not come back to the tournament again. The
\nlast two years, I had to kill myself to stay active, I was killing
\nmy body, it was so hard. I want to say thank you to the PFL,
\nbecause I got to stay very busy over the last two years. I got to
\nmake plenty of money and I got plenty of experience. This was a big
\nexperience for me and the success I had as well. I stay thankful to
\nthe PFL and their entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n

When discussing his upcoming opponent, Rabadanov said he did his
\nhomework on Chizov, respecting what he\u2019s done on the PFL Europe
\ncircuit, expecting a great fight between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cChizov is a very good opponent, he\u2019s a good fighter. He has good
\nboxing, good striking and he became the PFL Europe champion. He\u2019s
\ntough. I watched his fights; he\u2019s a very good opponent for me but I
\nthink I\u2019m much more of a universal fighter than him. My striking
\nskill is much better, my power, my hands — I think are better than
\nhis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not looking past his upcoming opponent, Rabadanov did say he\u2019d be
\nopen to a rematch with Davis, who he lost to in the finals last
\nyear.<\/p>\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

\u201cFirst off, this is all about Alex Chizov. I never look past my
\nopponent, but if I win, yes, I want this guy. A fight with Alfie
\nDavis will be my next goal. I want to break this guy. The last
\nfight was a bit of a mistake on my end, no excuse, but that was not
\nmy style. If the PFL wants to give me the rematch, I will be
\nhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n

First off will be the matchup against Chizov and while Rabadanov is
\nnear the top of the rankings, he\u2019s patiently going to take down
\ncompetition while his friend, Timur
\nKhizriev<\/a>, is the champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we have a champion, so no, I\u2019m not looking for a title
\nfight right now. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in the future
\nand I don\u2019t want to think about a fight against the champion. We
\nknow we will never fight against (Khizriev.) We never fight each
\nother. This is my younger brother. Of course I want to become a
\nchampion — not now — I don\u2019t even want to think about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to respond to his opponent saying that his message to
\nthe fans is \u201cdon\u2019t blink,\u201d Rabadanov echoed those same exact
\nwords.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, I like that, those are my words. This is my style. Don\u2019t
\nblink, please. I like this a lot, don\u2019t blink.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past two years, Gadzhi Rabadanov has been a staple in the Professional Fighters League\u2019s lightweight division, competing in back-to-back tournaments, winning in the 2024 PFL Season. Although he came up short last year, losing in the championship to Alfie Davis, Rabadanov is ready to move forward and get back to being the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38028","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\/38028","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=38028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}