After losing a split decision to UFC heavyweight vet Rodrigo Nascimento in May of 2025, British PFL star Abraham Bably had a sleepless night, the loss eating away at him.
“The past is the past, whatever,” Bably told Cageside Press ahead of his return, and light heavyweight debut, against Rob Wilkinson at PFL San Diego this weekend.
Yet still, it kept him awake at night. And the loss motivated Bably to make a move. “I searched up, ‘what was Mike Tyson’s prime weight?’ and it said ‘215 to 225.’ And I thought, ‘you know what, if I got onto a good nutrition, got my weight down, I could 100% be the reincarnation of that.'”
A move to light heavyweight, 205lbs, was in the cards. Straight after winning the PFL Africa tournament at heavyweight last December, Bably decided to pull the trigger. “And here we are.”
Now just days out from making his 205lb debut, Bably stated that in terms of making the move down in weight, “nothing’s changed at all, but not eating as many biscuits as I was as a heavyweight. I had to get off the fizzy drinks.”
The weight cut is something that he now recognizes in a way many fighters have put it over the years: the fight before the fight.
“What I’ve understood now, dropping weight, is it gives you a different type of focus, because you have to make the weight. The fight is the weight cut before the actual fight,” he stated. “So I know I’ll win the first battle, and I know from the work that I’ve put in in the gym, the second battle is already won. I just need to lift the story, to say. I’ve envisioned this day many, many, many times. I didn’t expect to fight Rob so soon, but it is what it is. I feel like I am ready for this challenge, to say, now.”
Bably added that he’ll always shout out Wilkinson, the PFL Global champ in 2022, for his success in the PFL, because “that’s not something to downplay. And I’ll always respect that, but it’s my time. He’s done it, but it’s my time now. And that’s that.”
Despite that respect, Abraham Bably envisions a violent end to the pair’s fight at PFL San Diego this Saturday.
“All I can say is, I’m putting him to bed, respectfully. I don’t know when, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, I don’t know how it’s going to happen. But I cannot stress that speed always kills, mate. It always kills. It always kills, and with the right person with that torque, it’s a problem. So again, respect to Rob, and I wish him all the best. Wish him all the best.”
Watch our full interview with PFL San Diego’s Abraham Bably above.
