Archie Colgan has been not so quietly waiting for his title opportunity and he finally gets his chance when he faces lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov in the PFL New York main event Friday.
With an undefeated record and coming from the same camp as UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, Colgan has been chasing this fight ever since he was in Bellator, but his climb to the top took a little longer than expected. Colgan admits it angered him a little bit to watch other contenders get that opportunity while he was still waiting, but he’s putting all that behind him now that the title fight is official.
“Three years ago, two and a half years ago when he first won the belt in Bellator, that became the goal,” Colgan told MMA Fighting. “That became the guy that I was like that’s who we’re chasing. That’s who we went to beat. That’s who we want to beat for the Bellator world title and then they got purchased and it became the PFL world title. None of that has changed.
“It’s been the same goal. It’s been consistent. To get the opportunity I set the goal against, it’s what I want. The frustrations are real. When we were talking about this, it was real frustration. Now the frustration, not that it’s gone, but we’re going to see now. Now it’s time.”
So much of the narrative around this fight has been built around two tenets: How will Nurmagomedov fare against another high-level wrestler and is this his final fight in the PFL with one bout left on his current contract?
Colgan can’t concern himself with the latter, but as a lifetime wrestler who spent four years at Wyoming competing Big 12 conference, he knows what it takes to deal with the best grapplers in the world. It also doesn’t hurt that he works alongside somebody like Gaethje or former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who is also a top wrestler in MMA.
Colgan knows this is a fight and not a wrestling match, but he’s keen to find out if Nurmagomedov is ready for everything he plans to throw at him when they finally clash.
“I think that’s what I have been preaching about this whole time,” Colgan said. “He’s a very well-rounded fighter, very good striking, distance management, good wrestling, good grappling as well but it’s always been out of operation of offense, offense, offense and never having to consider the defense to it. July 31, we’ll have those answers.”
As far as taking the title off Nurmagomedov as he potentially reaches free agency where he’s long been rumored to end up in the UFC, Colgan has nothing to do with that but he would like to show the world that elite competition absolutely exists in the PFL.
He couldn’t imagine a better way to bolster the PFL lightweight division than to go out and dethrone Nurmagomedov in dominant fashion.
“I think that me going out there and doing what I believe I will do in getting the job done, it just goes to show that the PFL is very legitimate and the lightweight weight class here at the PFL is high caliber,” Colgan said. “It’s up there with everybody and it’s not just one guy who’s up there with everybody. It’s a roster of very talented guys and it should get its shine.”
