BRENDAN LOUGHNANE will be hoping to do the double for England when he fights America’s Bubba Jenkins with $1milion at stake.
Loughnane is into the final of the Professional Fighters League 2022 season and faces Jenkins on Friday in New York.
Not only will the $1m prize cheque and featherweight title belt be on the line but so will bragging rights.
Manchester’s Loughnane, 32, will fight Jenkins, 34, just hours after Gareth Southgate’s England take on the USA in the Qatar World Cup.
It will be the Three Lions’ second group stage match, having kicked off their campaign by beating Iran 6-2 four days earlier.
So Loughnane will be hoping for back-to-back wins for England when he contends for the life-changing cheque.
He said on the MMA Hour: “We’ve got Friday, USA versus England and me versus Bubba, could it have felt any better?”;
Loughnane will cheer on the Three Lions from the Big Apple, before hours later representing his nation in the cage.
He said: “I’ll watch. Perfect timing.”;
The PFL is MMA’s only league format, consisting of a regular season and playoffs.
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Stars in each weight division have two qualifying bouts, where points are earned per method of victory.
The top four then progress into the knockout stages, resulting in a finale fight between the last two.
Loughnane beat rival Chris Wade, 34, in August in London to book his place in the winner-take-all showpiece.
Headlining at the Hulu Theatre is two-time Olympic champion Kayla Harrison, 32, looking for her THIRD $1m PFL cheque, against Larissa Pacheco, 28.
