PFL Belfast card has taken a significant hit.
Paul
Hughes announced on Wednesday that a knee injury has forced him
to withdraw from his main event bout against Jay-Jay
Wilson. As a result, Darragh
Kelly will step in and face Wilson in the new PFL Belfast
headliner, the promotion confirmed. Additionally, Pedro
Carvalho will step in to face Kellyβs original opponent,
Sergio
Cossio.
PFL Belfast takes place on April 16 at the SSE Arena in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. Recent signee Rhys McKee
is expected to compete in the co-main event against an opponent
that will be announced next week.
πππ π½ππππΌππ πππΏπΌππ π¨
Paul
Hughes is OUT of PFL Belfast due to injury. We wish Paul well
in his recovery.Undefeated lightweight Darragh
KellyβΈ steps in to face New Zealandβs Jay Jay WilsonβΆ
in the lightweight main event.Rhys
McKeeβs opponent will beβ¦ pic.twitter.com/SMNG3nyNpTβ PFL Europe (@PFLEurope)
March 25, 2026
Surgery on the Horizon
Hughes provided a statement on his exit in an Instagram video.
βWithout going into too much detail, I picked up a knee injury in
preparations and having explored every option it just isnβt
possible for me to carry on training,β Hughes said. βIβve consulted
with my team alongside top professionals and unfortunately this
injury cannot be pushed through anymore. I will be having surgery
very soon to fix this issue. This is the game of mixed martial
arts. Itβs the highest highs and the lowest lows and this is one of
the lowest lows. I am absolutely crushed. I think everyone knows
how much this means to me to bring PFL back to Belfast. To not only
showcase my skills, but to also highlight the talent that we have
on this island in front of the world. From the bottom of my heart,
I want to apologize to all of my supporters and everyone that Iβve
let down, especially those that have spent their hard-earned money
on tickets on flights to come and see me fight at home. That will
never, ever sit well with me, and I will never be OK with it, and
it will always eat at me that I cannot deliver.
βThis is the unfortunate reality of the sport. Iβm due now to have
surgery very soon and that begins my next chapter, the road to
recovery. I want to be back in the cage as soon as humanly possible
to right this wrong. It has been a wild journey since joining the
PFL and itβs going to be very hard to sit out now for some months
with everything Iβm working so hard to achieve, but this is now a
part of the story. Every obstacle thatβs ever been thrown my way
has always propelled me to new heights. Iβm going to get through
this and Iβm going to come back better than ever. This goal has not
changed. Iβm still going to the top of this entire sport and Iβll
see you there.β
A former Cage Warriors champion, Hughes was a high-profile free
agent signing for the
PFL in 2024. He has gone 2-2 in the organization, with both of
his losses coming to lightweight champion Usman
Nurmagomedov. The Irish standout also owns victories over
A.J.
McKee and Bruno Mirando in PFL competition.
Kelly, 27, owns a 9-0 professional record β with the majority of
his victories coming in either the PFL or Bellator
MMA. In his most recent outing, βMoville Maulerβ submitted
Bakhtiyar
Abdulloev in the opening stanza at a PFL Europe event in
September 2025.