{"id":608821,"date":"2026-04-15T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/608821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:34:10","slug":"pfl-belfast-everything-lined-up-for-darragh-kelly-in-belfast-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/608821\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL Belfast: ‘Everything lined up’ for Darragh Kelly in Belfast main event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moville’s Darragh Kelly says “everything has lined up” as he prepares to headline Thursday’s PFL card at Belfast’s SSE Arena.<\/p>\n

The unbeaten lightweight steps in to face New Zealand’s Jay Jay Wilson in the main event following the withdrawal of Paul Hughes through injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Kelly expressed disappointment for Hughes after open workouts at Victoria Square on Wednesday, he is determined to seize the opportunity on home soil.<\/p>\n

“It’s very unfortunate for Paul, my heart goes out to him, but it’s fallen to me now,” Kelly told BBC Sport NI.<\/p>\n

“I’m just excited and grateful. It doesn’t get bigger than this for me. It feels like everything I’ve done in MMA has lined up for this moment.”<\/p>\n

The Straight Blast Gym fighter takes on number seven-ranked lightweight Wilson and expects a demanding contest as he seeks to climb the rankings.<\/p>\n

“We know what he brings, very dangerous and unorthodox, but we’ve found holes in his game,” he added.<\/p>\n

“I’m not going in expecting a finish like my usual fights. I’m prepared for three hard rounds, a real war.<\/p>\n

“A win over Jay Jay and then one more, surely I’m in contention.”<\/p>\n

Kelly also welcomed the increasing number of recognised former UFC fighters joining the PFL, including Rhys McKee<\/a> and Caolan Loughran.<\/p>\n

“It’s brilliant for the sport and brilliant for PFL,” he added.<\/p>\n

“The more high-level names with big support, the more eyes we get on it.<\/p>\n

” Local MMA’s booming at the moment. From north to south, there are big prospects everywhere, and in the next few years, it’s only going to get stronger.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moville’s Darragh Kelly says “everything has lined up” as he prepares to headline Thursday’s PFL card at Belfast’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-608821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}