Brendan Loughnane knows he can’t fight forever but that doesn’t mean he’s already eyeballing a date for his retirement party.
Just days away from competing for a second PFL championship, the 34-year-old veteran clarified some comments he made back in August about being in the “twilight” of his career. While he understands that he has less days ahead of him than behind when it comes to fighting, Loughnane promises that he’s not going anywhere, any time soon.
“Listen, English literature wasn’t my favorite subject at school,” Loughnane said with a laugh. “Let me rephrase that — Brendan Loughnane is in his prime, coming up to 35 next month, still keeping up the same numbers on the track, still sparring all the world-class guys back-to-back, still feeling fantastic, still having great fights.
“Let me rephrase that ‘twilight’ and let me get rid of that word forever. That word shouldn’t have even come into my vocabulary.”
If Loughnane is forced to be brutally honest about the future, he knows that time eventually catches up to everyone so he’s not oblivious enough to ignore the signs that he’ll have to call it quits one day.
But he’s definitely not thinking about that happening any time soon, especially as he prepares to fight for a title and a chance to win his second $1 million prize.
“Listen, let’s just have it right: MMA is a young man’s game,” Loughnane said. “I am in the final chapter of it but having said that, I’m feeling better than ever. I’m fighting better than ever. So it’s like, let’s just ride it until the wheels fall off and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.”
His fight against Timur Khizriev caps off a fourth straight year he’s spent in the PFL season format where athletes could potentially compete up to four times during a seven-month period.
Between 2021 and 2024, Loughnane has competed a total of 12 times with his 13th fight on the horizon and that much activity can wear down just about anybody.
He actually contemplated stepping out of the season-long format previously, but once the year gets rolling, Loughnane admits that he really has transformed into a “tournament fighter.”
That said, Loughnane is once again contemplating a future in 2025 that doesn’t involve another season spent grinding through the PFL featherweight division, especially now with more opportunities available to him after the promotion bought out Bellator — with a whole slew of potential opponents he’s never faced before.
“I couldn’t tell you why I’m back in this season but I’m here now,” Loughnane said. “I’m in the finals, and I ain’t complaining. I racked up three more great wins on my resume. Another world title and a lot more dollars.
“Listen, I said to PFL now, put me in some fun fights after this. We’ve got a big thing going on in Europe now, a big thing going on worldwide, signing loads of fun guys. Let’s just do some fun stuff. I’ve proved myself in tournaments. I’m about to win this thing again and there’s not much more you can really do is there? For sure [the last one].”
More than anything right now, Loughnane wants to get through Khizriev on Friday and then he’ll really start thinking about the future.
With a perfect 17-0 record, Khizriev might just be the next big thing, but Loughnane has seen plenty of fighters with similar resumes and backgrounds so none of that scares him. If anything, Loughnane believes his experience in these kinds of situations make him perfectly suited to win again while this really is a new experience for Khizriev.
“I’m at the point now where this is my 36th pro fight,” Loughnane said. “I’ve been fighting wrestlers my whole career. Movlid [Khaybulaev], I take my hat off to you, you beat me. But apart from that, these wrestlers can’t get the better of me.
“Bubba Jenkins, not one takedown. Chris Wade, not one takedown. Tyler Diamond, beat the hell out of him. I’ve been fighting these wrestlers my whole life. I know exactly what he’s going to do. He’s got to do it for five rounds. It’s a long, long, long time in there with me.”
Assuming all goes well, and Loughnane extends his winning streak, he then plans to sit down with the brass at the PFL to figure out what comes next.
“Let’s see what happens,” Loughnane said. “Let’s get through Timur and then let’s sit down and see what PFL wants to do. Because ever since I’ve started the tournament this year, they’ve gone from there to there, PFL are doing innovative things, and it’s a great time to be a PFL fighter.”
