Pouya Rahmani’s upcoming fight was the least of his worries.
The undefeated heavyweight had a hard time focusing on his PFL Dubai clash with Karl Williams following the death of his coach Mahdi Zatparvar and friends back in his home country of Iran, but decided to keep pushing forward to honor them inside the cage.
It’s estimated thousands of people have died in Iran over the past few weeks after taking to the streets to protest the authoritarian government, and Rahmani said he had a “very tough camp” after Zatparvar ended up “killed in the street.”
“I lost my coach in this camp. I lost a lot of my friends,” Rahmani told MMA Fighting. “In our country, people are fighting for freedom, so I lost a lot of my friends, It was very hard for me to be active, to train, to push myself, because this coach I had every day, we used to talk with each other. He was like a psychologist and he was my conditioning coach, and it was very hard for me to accept that your coach and your best friend, you lose. And next day you cannot talk to him, you know? It was very hard for me.
“And then at one point I said, ‘No, man, you have to win this fight because he was focused a lot on me.’ He was trying to do everything for me to win the fight, so I have to win the fight and give this fight to him.”
Rahmani has lived in Dubai for five years, training and teaching at Team Nogueira. He didn’t go to the gym for days after receiving the bad news.
“When this happened, two, three days I stopped training,’ Rahmani said. “And then after two, three days, a lot of friends, we had close friends, they all was talking with me and saying, ‘No, you have to fight. You have to give this fight to him.’ After three days, when I started training, I pushed really hard, I passed my limit and I did my best to be on the good shape to finish this fight the best way I can.”
Rahmani decided to keep going. He faces Williams this Saturday, competing under MMA rules for the first time in Dubai. He has grappled before in the area and shrugs off any notion of pressure to deliver in a different sport.
“We don’t think about losing, brother,” Rahmani said. “For us, just winning. We don’t think at all about losing the fight. Anyone, doesn’t matter. When I fight I’m just thinking about winning. I don’t put myself under the pressure, ‘Oh, maybe you lose,’ no. I don’t see that.”
Facing a UFC veteran doesn’t mean anything to him either. Williams went 3-1 inside the octagon with wins over Lukasz Brzeski, Chase Sherman, and Justin Tafa before losing a decision to Jhonata Diniz in 2024. Williams wasn’t signed to a new contract, instead moving to PFL the following year and losing to Oleg Popov and Sergey Bilostenniy.
“I trained with a lot of heavyweights of UFC, brother,” Rahmani said. “They’re not that level you think, you know? And people think because they are UFC fighters they are something special, but it’s not like that. I train with top 5 UFC, they are not something special, they are normal fighters.
“I don’t see something special on this guy, Karl Williams. I fight better guy than him when I was fighting in Russia. I fight the ACA champion. And ACA champion can beat top 5 UFC. You have to see what they do in Russia. I don’t care if he fights UFC or something, now we are in PFL and he’s going to get smashed.”
Rahmani has racked up a perfect 5-0 record in the sport with a 100 percent finishing rate, all before the three-minute mark, and he trashes fellow heavyweights who put on “boring” fights. His first PFL bout ended with a knockout over Slim Trabelsi.
“I’m looking for a finish, either in the ground or in a standup,” Rahmani said. “It doesn’t matter. If he gives me one second chance, I’m going to finish him.”
The Iranian heavyweight hopes a big stoppage Saturday could immediately put him in the conversation for a shot at the elite of the division in PFL, namely champion Vadim Nemkov and PFL star Francis Ngannou. Rahmani, however, doesn’t see either being on the same level in terms of technique and skill.
”They either give me Francis Ngannou or Nemkov,” Rahmani said. “Any of them they give, I’m happy, I think Francis just has one one more fight, right? I would be happy to smash him, you know, and I finish his career with loss.”
Rahmani isn’t sure Ngannou will ever re-enter the PFL cage, though.
“[Ngannou] was hungry for the fight before, but he don’t have that hunger for the fight anymore,” he continued. “I don’t feel anything. When I see him him fighting, I feel he’s not that [hungry]. And the thing is, Francis always fight with the good striker. He never fight with one good wrestler. You have to see Francis Ngannou against me.
“Like we say in jiu-jitsu, I make him white belt in front of people. He used to train with my last opponent and there is video in YouTube, he used to beat him up, he used to take him down, and used to smash him on the ground. With me it’s different scenario. I’m world champion in this sport and he cannot do anything. When I put him down, he just need to pray to God to survive.”
Rahmani respects Nemkov’s fighting abilities, but wasn’t surprised to see him dominate Renan Ferreira with ease in his most recent appearance to claim a vacant PFL heavyweight championship.
“Ferreira has zero grappling,” Rahmani said. “He has good boxing, but he has zero grappling. Francis Ngannou is no grappler and Francis Ngannou take him down and finish him. I wasn’t surprised when he got takedown and he was not able to do anything. The most funny thing is he’s Brazilian, but he doesn’t know jiu-jitsu. It’s bad.”
According to Rahmani, the PFL champion “was talking about me” in Russian media two years ago, back when he was still competing in Russian soil, so there’s a narrative to build between the two.
“He said he was interested to fight me because I think I fight and beat his teammate,” Rahmani said. “Now he’s champion and I would love to fight him and smash him because we have his story from back. … The other guys in PFL, they are very boring. I see the final of tournament, It was very boring for me to watch that fight. People wants to see something special, you know? Some good action. And I always give to people that action, either I fight grappling or I fight MMA. My fight not going to be boring at all. After this fight, hopefully I get my title fight. They need new blood in the division.”
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