PFL MENA: Pride of Arabia will take place at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai from 23rd to 24th May, bringing together fighters from 11 countries across the Middle East and North Africa for the 2026 season opener.<\/p>\n
Held in collaboration with Dubai Sports Council and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, the two-night event combines mixed martial arts action with live entertainment.<\/p>\n
The weekend opens on 23rd May with the ceremonial weigh-in and live concerts by Egyptian artist Mohamed Ramadan and Saudi singer Bader Al Shuaibi, before fight night begins on 24th May.<\/p>\n
Mohammad \u201cThe UAE Warrior\u201d Yahya (12-6) will headline the event on home soil in his PFL debut against Tunisia\u2019s Mehdi Saadi (6-2) in the Featherweight Tournament quarter-final.<\/p>\n
Yahya said, \u201cThe pressure doesn’t really affect me. I’ve fought in many big events before, including main events. I’m just focused on my goal, and that’s winning this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saadi described the contest as \u201ca fight between Dubai and Abu Dhabi\u201d, adding that he aims to finish the bout in the second round.<\/p>\n
The event will also feature the PFL MENA debut of Zamzam Al Hammadi, the UAE\u2019s first female MMA fighter to compete in a major regional promotion. The 18-year-old IMMAF Youth World Champion will face Abeer Mansour (2-1) in the Women\u2019s Strawweight Amateur Showcase.<\/p>\n
Al Hammadi said she was fighting first for the UAE and then for her mother, Nada Al Nuaymi, who is a judo and jiu-jitsu practitioner.<\/p>\n
In the Lightweight Tournament quarter-final co-main event, Morocco\u2019s undefeated Salah Eddine Hamli (11-0) will face Algeria\u2019s Ylies Djiroun (24-9).<\/p>\n
Other bouts include Bahrain\u2019s Hamza Kooheji (14-4) against Morocco\u2019s Taha Bendaoud (5-1), alongside Mohammad Fahmi (6-1) versus Assem Ghanem (7-0), Ahmed El Sisy (7-2) versus Harda Karim (5-2), and Georges Eid (11-6) versus Hussein Fakher (7-4).<\/p>\n
Jerome Mazet, General Manager of PFL MENA, said the event reflects the region\u2019s sporting and entertainment ambitions.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cPride of Arabia is exactly that \u2014 a celebration of this region, its fighters and its fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PFL MENA: Pride of Arabia will take place at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai from 23rd to 24th May, bringing together fighters from 11 countries across the Middle East and North Africa for the 2026 season opener. Held in collaboration with Dubai Sports Council and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, the two-night event combines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70035,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70031\/revisions\/70035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}