Used to competing outside his homeland, Abdullah Al Qahtani plans on relishing home advantage when he fights this weekend on Saudi Arabia’s momentous MMA debut.
What’s more, the Riyadh-born athlete is predicting fans in attendance, or those tuning in from afar, are in for a treat.
“Inshallah, they’re going to see something very good, something very excellent… and something crazy,” Al Qahtani tells The National in the Saudi capital as he puts the finishing touches to his prep. “And be ready.”
Evidently, Al Qahtani feels more than ready. Of course, the 7-1 pro record helps buttress belief. Competing initially in Bahrain-based promotion Brave CF, the Saudi national signed last year with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and promptly marked his arrival last June with a first-round submission win against Lamar Brown, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Two months later, Al Qahtani took a unanimous decision against David Zelner, at the venerated Madison Square Garden in New York.
But, on Saturday, the featherweight will contest a three-round bout with India’s Edukondala Rao in Riyadh, on what is already shaping up to be one of the standout MMA cards of 2024.
“PFL Champions vs Bellator Champions”, taking place at Kingdom Arena, marks not only Saudi’s big bow in elite-level MMA, but the PFL’s inaugural blended event since acquiring fellow promotion Bellator in November.
The chief four bouts pit against one another champions of the respective organisations, while the card will also feature the likes of celebrated combatants Clay Collard and AJ McKee, women’s boxing superstar Claressa Shields, and the pro debut of Biaggio Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali’s grandson.
A stellar fight night promised, it was made possible, too, by the investment agreement announced last August between the PFL and SRJ Sports Investments, an entity owned by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund.
Understandably, Al Qahtani feels like an ambassador helping usher in a new frontier with MMA in the kingdom.
“I do feel it,” he says. “Before, like three years ago, no one here knows what MMA is. And also, when I started before that, I only wanted to be the best in the world.
“And now, all the eyes are on Saudi Arabia and on MMA. And now PFL has come, they are pushing for me to become the best.”
An only child, Al Qahtani dedicates his performances to his mother; it was her, in fact, who actually pushed him to take up the sport.
Now aged 24, and about to represent his country at home but on the global stage, it all seems to have worked out rather well.
“Now it’s here in Saudi, here with my family, with my team, all the people who want me to have success,” Al Qahtani says. “Every time I go outside to fight, I hear all the people are against me.
“But now here in Saudi, all of them push me, all of them want me to win – this is something huge.
“Everyone knows me; they know what I do in my fights. All my other fights are big and crazy. No one can explain what I can do in the fight. On Saturday, I will do something big.
“I want to put on a great show… and show the world how good Saudi fighters are.”
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
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Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
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Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The years Ramadan fell in May
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- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Sole survivors
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Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
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