Loughran aims for Dubai delight

CAOLAN Loughran faces a baptism of fire on his PFL debut, which will take place in Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena on Friday, October 3rd on the same card that will be headlined by Paul Hughes’ rematch with Usman Nurmagomedov for the lightweight world title.

Kildress bantamweight Loughran is looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead next month when he will lock horns with one of the sport’s rising stars, Lewis McGrillen and while the 29-year-old Tyrone man goes into the fight with more experience than his English foe, he’s certainly not taking his opponent lightly.

“I’ve trained with him a good few times,” he explained. “I half base myself here in Liverpool and he’s in Manchester, so it’s 40 minutes up the M6. I sparred him a few times and I’m confident with how they went, I’m happy and everything, but I’ve been around this game long enough to know that sparring and fighting are two very different things!

“I’d be stupid to take too much confidence from that because there are too many variables in a spar. I’m very confident with how they went, I beat him, but I know that is what it is.”

And those previous meetings with the Manchester-based fighter means Loughran is aware of the danger McGrillen presents and what he needs to guard against, while the former Cage Warriors champion, fresh from four fights in the UFC, is confident that his opponent needs to be equally wary of him on the night.

“His style, he kind of rushes you and he’s dangerous, he’s hugely aggressive and has a powerful left hand.

“He’s more dangerous in a fight than he would be in a technical spar, so I don’t take too much away from it,” he added.

“I take a few things away from it but it’s a litmus test for him.

“He’s the face of the PFL in Europe and I keep getting told he’s the hottest bantamweight prospect in Europe, but I just fought against a completely different level of opponent for about four or five years now.

“He’s going to come in confident, so it will be about making him question himself and second guess by using my MMA experience against him.

“He has fought some experienced guys but when he fought them, they were on their 16th/17th professional loss, they were 38 years of age, on the way down, while I’m 29 and the PFL have offered me the chance to completely change my life in the next 18 months if I do my job.

“I’m going into my athletic prime with everything to fight for and everything to gain. Skill-set alone, he’s never faced that.”

Ahead of the fight, Loughtan and younger brother, Tiarnan, who has been forced to retire from the sport, are travelling to Dubai well ahead of time as they already have everything in place to make sure Coalan is well prepared for October 3rd.

“I actually have a good few contacts in Dubai, guys who have opened gyms over there and do a bit of coaching, so me and Tiarnan are going to head over there about two weeks early and we have got everything already set up, so it’s pretty cool,” he explained.