Brendan Loughnane 's original opponent pulled out of their PFL clash just over a week away from the fight, but he is unbothered by facing a short notice replacement.
Loughnane was scheduled to fight Boston Salmon at PFL 5 tonight, but the American pulled out of the featherweight clash for an undisclosed reason. Ago Huskic, who is on a two-fight losing streak, filled in for Salmon and will be looking to damage the Loughnane's hopes of qualifying for the tournament's playoffs.
Huskic last fought on a card run by former UFC champion Anthony Pettis, who also competes tonight in Atlanta tonight. Loughnane, who likened Huskic's style to his original opponent Salmon, admits he would have fought anyone the PFL offered him.
"Nothing changes, it's still an opponent and it's quite similar to who I was supposed to be fighting anyway," he told Mirror Fighting . "All system's go from here, I've been doing this forever now. They could have thrown anyone in there and I would have been ready for them.
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"I'm just happy they found me a fighter fighter on short notice, just buzzing they actually managed to get someone. The last thing I wanted was to do all this training camp, do all this hard work to not get paid and not fight. So a big thank you to PFL because they want above and beyond to find me a great replacement.
"This is the 35th time I'm going in the cage, I've been here so many times. World titles, Ultimate Fighter, Contender Series, world clash opponents across the board. If my opponent pulls out and they put someone else in, I wouldn't give a f***."
Loughnane reached the semi-finals of last year's competition but was narrowly beaten by Movlid Khaybulaev, who went on to win the $1million prize. The Brit has been strategically placed on the opening bout of tonight's event so fans in the UK can tune into his fight, with Loughnane admitting he loves the added pressure of the scheduling.
"It's good and bad because there's a hell of a lot of pressure on me heading into this fight," he continued. "There's loads of pressure and they've even moved me for the English crowd, they've put me on the first fight of the night because it'll be 10:30pm in England."
"Nobody else is carrying the pressure I am carrying, but I love pressure because it creates diamonds. I'm ready to go out and put the best performance of my career on."
