2024 PFL season winner Gadzhi Rabadanov completed the lightweight champion trifecta for his team, and he certainly felt pressured to make it happen.
Rabadanov (24-4-2) trains alongside UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov. The team now has the 155-pound division locked down across the big three promotions.
“Yes, trust me, I was the first one who was thinking that,” Rabadanov told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “The pressure was all on me. Well, I would say it was pressure and motivation.
“… I was saying, imagine if I become the champion of PFL, then we’re going to have me a champion of PFL, Usman in Bellator, and then Islam in UFC – that would be amazing. So, that was in the back of my head going into this fight. Definitely, I was thinking about that.”
Competing in the busy schedule of the PFL season is pressure enough. Rabadanov, 31, had to win four fights from April to November in order to win the season. He did so emphatically too by scoring a second-round TKO over Michael Dufort in the semifinals, and captured the $1 million prize that accompanies the championship belt by stopping Brent Primus in the third round.
Putting a significant amount of money in his bank account was part of the joy of victory, but being able to join Makhachev and Nurmagomedov as champions across the three big MMA brands was an added benefit, as well as a relief.
“We are not like teammates,” Rabadanov said. “No, we’re like family. I grow with these people, we grow together. We train 15 years together. We live together in training camp. These guys are like my brothers. It’s not just ‘team,’ it’s like my family.”
Rabadanov won’t puff his chest out too much now that he has gold, though. The win for him was about bringing gold to the team, but he quickly admits Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are the better champions out of the trio.
“My brothers are the best, Usman and Islam,” Rabadanov said with a laugh. “I accept being No. 3. I love my guys. I love my brothers.”
Moving forward, Rabadanov is focused on winning the 2025 season, and potentially stacking up more $1 million checks in the years that follow.
