Nathan Kelly Maps Out His Road to Relevance

Significant pieces of the Professional Fighters League’s future will be on display at PFL Champions Series 1 this Saturday at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nathan Kelly, a key cog in the company’s youth movement, wants the world to know that the PFL’s first event of 2025 signifies the arrival of the next generation of Irish mixed martial artists.

The 27-year-old SBG Ireland rep faces Akhmed Magomedov in a three-round featherweight showcase that pits him against one of the many talented Russian competitors on the card. Kelly enters the cage on an 11-fight winning streak. He sounds like a man who embraces whatever trials might await him.

“My personal feelings about fighting [is that] I want to test myself against the best in the world,” Kelly told Sherdog.com. “That’s how you find out who you really are and what you’re made of. I just have that natural competitive instinct to want to fight the best in the world. Once you get to a certain level, that’s all you’re going to do is face the best in the world, and you’re challenging for that title yourself. I’ll always be challenging myself to compete against the best, and us Irish fighters will give it a go against anyone.”

With the Bellator MMA merger now mostly in the rearview mirror and as business reacts accordingly, the PFL looks to open the door of opportunity to rising talents like Kelly. He understands all Irish fighters figure to face comparisons to former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder Conor McGregor for the foreseeable future but believes the latest wave of talent from the country has what it takes to stake its own claim at the top of the sport.

“We’ve got fighters like Ian Garry [in the UFC], Paul Hughes fighting for the [Bellator] world title and myself on the card with him,” he said. “We are the generation that follows the last generation of Irish fighters, the likes of Conor McGregor, Neil Seery, [Patrick] Holohan, all those who came and went before us. We’re the young guys that can gravitate with the teenagers. Now it’s our time, [and] now that it’s our time, we’re here to prove ourselves. Just watch us do it. That’s all I can say. Just watch us.”

In getting the chance to compete at the first PFL event of the year, Kelly hopes to use it as a means to earn as many big-fight opportunities as he can over the next 12 months. It all starts with Magomedov.

“It will set the blueprint of what’s coming next,” Kelly said. “It’s the very start of the year. It’ll start off with a win, and then you’re in the position to negotiate what’s next. As for what’s next, I don’t know, but I think if I beat this guy, especially if I finish him, I think I’ll be in position to call for a title shot or at the very least get near one. I’d love to work towards the title in 2025. If it means I have to fight one more or I go straight in, so be it.”