Lazy King is the latest big-name MMA fighter from France but was he supposed to join the UFC or the PFL?

The PFL have made a huge signing for their roster by landing MMA fighter, Lazy King, whose real name is Abdoul Abdouraguimov.

The 28-year-old Frenchman is one of the hottest European prospects in the world and has featured on the Ares promotion for a couple of years.

Lazy King, as Abdoul Abdouraguimov is known, currently holds a record of 16 wins and only 1 loss. The Frenchman also was a double champion in Ares as he held the middleweight and welterweight titles.

Abdouraguimov last fought at Ares FC 11 in January and won his bout against Rafal Haratyk via a kneebar.

The PFL posted several updates on their social media platforms as they confirmed who Lazy King is to fight next.

OFFICIAL: Abdoul Abdouraguimov (@LazyKingMMA) is PFL bound!

He will debut against Quemuel Ottoni in the #PFLParis Co-Main Event on Sat, Sept 30th!

+ Abdoul will join the Global Roster for the 2024 PFL Season pic.twitter.com/MYlVm7ecj1

— PFL (@PFLMMA) August 10, 2023

The 28-year-old will be taking on Quemuel Ottoni in the PFL Paris event on the 30th of September. That could be the perfect event for the Frenchman as he would be making his debut in front of his home crowd. 

Was Abdoul Abdouraguimov set to join the UFC before the PFL?

Reports suggest that the Frenchman has a huge following online and can speak four languages, and for a while it seemed that the UFC would be landing the highly coveted MMA star.

There were rumours that he was to join the UFC and take part in their September 2 event in Paris, but the PFL seem to have pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

MMA reporter Al Zullino posted about how the UFC basically “ghosted” the Frenchman after a period of time.

He confirmed that there was no contract and they weren’t really speaking to him. Zullino further claimed that Lazy King’s team were ready to move on. The update was posted on 5 August. 

Latest from Lazy King 🧵

Speaking to people close to the situation, what I've gathered is that the UFC basically ghosted Abdoul Abdouraguimov and his team. They heard nothing, received no contract. "It's dead", they said.

I'm hearing they are ready to move on.

— Al Zullino (@phre) August 2, 2023

The UFC already had one big Frenchman on their roster in Ciryl Gane, and landing Abdoul would have been great.

However, this has worked out extremely well for the PFL, and they have snapped up one of the biggest names on the European circuit. 

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