Aside from the three title fights at the top of the PFL lineup on Saturday, the biggest fight on the program was clearly a lightweight matchup between AJ McKee and Paul Hughes. McKee is a former Bellator featherweight champion and one of the best fighters in the promotion’s history. Hughes, on the other hand, is a former Cage Warriors featherweight champion and entered the PFL Smart Cage for the first time as one of the hottest MMA prospects in the world.

In the end, Hughes absolutely lived up to his hype. While his split decision win suggests he had a very close fight with McKee, most people seem to agree that he handled his American rival pretty clearly. Not only did he nearly finish McKee several times, but he also landed more punches and completed both takedowns he attempted in the fight.

“I think it was pretty clear that I won,” he told commentator Brett Okamoto after the fight. “I almost got him out of there a few times.”

With the win over McKee, who had lost just once in 23 previous fights, Hughes immediately stands out as one of the top lightweights under the PFL-Bellator umbrella. Time will tell how matchmakers want to handle his rise, but if he gets his way, a fight with lightweight champ Usman Nurmagomedov will be next.

Either way, his hype train is firmly on the tracks.

“The PFL believed in me and is now looking at me,” he said. “Here I am, a little boy from rural Ireland, on the big stage.”