Your co-main event. Only one can advance to the playoffs.
Mohamed Alakra 🇰🇼 Weight ✅ 170 lbs
Youssef Uabas 🇩🇿 Weight ✅ 169 lbs
Are you ready for a welterweight showdown?🔥🥊About #PFLMENA
| Friday, July 12 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Tickets available from 🔗… pic.twitter.com/8PZx8lLu4c
— PFL MENA (@PFLMENA)
July 11, 2024
Mohamed Alakra has traveled more than 7,000 miles to train with the best players. He’s made huge sacrifices to get a chance to shine on the biggest stage, and it’s finally starting to pay off.
Despite initial setbacks, such as not having a sponsor to travel to the U.S., Aracula remained determined. He applied to multiple schools and eventually enrolled at San Jose State University on a scholarship. But he wouldn’t settle for a major that wouldn’t serve him well as an athlete. He chose industrial engineering, a field that would tax his mind as much as training taxes his body.
“I thought that if I studied industrial engineering, I could start a business and improve my English,” Aracura told Sherdog.com. “All I did was train and go to school. My trainers were great and made sure I didn’t miss any training while I was studying, but now I’ve finally graduated and can focus on martial arts full time.”
Having graduated in May, the unbeaten middleweight boxer is now focused on the most important bout of his career. Alakra (5-0) will put his unbeaten record on the line when he takes on Yousef Ouabas (3-0) on Friday in the 2024 PFL MENA 2 regular season. The bout, which will take place at the Green Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will be the culmination of years of sacrifice and hard work and a return to the Middle East that feels like poetic justice.
“This is my dream,” Aracula says. “Back in the day, when I was a student, I used to get really upset because I didn’t have much time to practice the way I wanted to. Ask anyone at AKA and they’ll tell you I love practicing. After practice, I stay and ask questions. Now I have time to practice and recover, and that’s my dream right now.”
Aracura juggles a high volume of training with long hours of fighting, but his double life hasn’t slowed him down in the cage. He won his debut bout by TKO in the second round and his next bout by submission in the first round. Beating opponents wasn’t hard; finding them was. Aracura hasn’t fought since March 2023 and admits he’s been disappointed with the matchmaking. His challenge in the Professional Fighters League couldn’t have come at a better time.
“My last fight was over a year and a half ago because I couldn’t find a fight,” he said, “but signing with PFL MENA is a great opportunity. I’ve always said I’m the best in the Middle East. I’ve believed this ever since I stepped into AKA and I’ve believed that one day I’d be the best in the world. PFL MENA is giving me the chance to prove it.”
If Alacura wins the eight-man tournament, he’ll have the opportunity to compete in next year’s 2025 PFL season for $1 million. Though Alacura has only five fights on his record, his training with AKA has given him consistent exposure to the best in the world, including Ultimate Fighting Championship pound-for-pound champion Islam Makhachev. Alacura is helping train Makhachev in preparation for his lightweight title defense against Dustin Poirier and feels Uabas has a tough fight in store.
“I used to think I was the best in the world and that I couldn’t be beaten,” Aracura says, “but when I first came to AKA I thought, ‘Why can’t I beat these guys? Why can’t I win here?’ I had to train for two years before I could prove my skills, but iron sharpens iron.”
Allaklah attributes his development to his AKA grappling coach Ron Kessler. Kessler initially told Allaklah that if he kept working hard, he would one day become a champion. Allaklah followed Kessler’s advice and did not take Kessler for granted.
Alaqura has lived and trained in the United States for a long time and has grown a lot as a fighter and a person, but his upbringing will always be the foundation. He is proud to be from Kuwait and wants to show the world what it means to be from Kuwait.
“Kuwaitis have a strong mentality and if they put their mind to something, they achieve it,” he said. “We were raised with a lionheart lifestyle. Our level of mixed martial arts is not high yet, but it all starts with one world champion. When you become a champion, you bring all that knowledge back to your country and pass it on to the next generation. So, if I become a world champion, many champions from Kuwait will follow me.”
