IBJJF world champion Mahamed Aly will now be making his professional MMA debut at PCS 4: Bud Light Fight Night on January 20th, 2024. This fight will be the culmination of several years of preparation, as Aly has actually taken quite a long time away from grappling competition in order to learn the skills necessary to transition to MMA. The last time that Aly was seen competing under any ruleset was all the way back in 2021, when he won a silver medal in the heavyweight division of the IBJJF Grand Prix.
Aly enjoyed an impressive professional grappling career over the years, and he was a permanent fixture at major events after he got promoted to black belt by Lloyd Irvin in 2015. He actually won his first major title very quickly, winning a gold medal at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship on his very first attempt as a black belt. It took him another few years of hard work and tough matches to replicate this success in the gi, but he eventually added an IBJJF World Championship to his collection in 2018. He also won ADCC Trials back in 2017, but he fell just short of winning medals in the 99kg or absolute divisions at the ADCC world championship later that year.
Irvin revealed that Mahamed Aly has taken some amateur boxing matches in order to gain experience in striking ahead of his MMA debut, and that the plan wasn’t always to turn professional immediately. Apparently Aly has had several opponents drop out of meeting him in an amateur fight, so a professional fight on the regional MMA circuit was the best course of action to prevent this. Now Aly will be fighting Wesley Santos at PCS 4: Bud Light Fight Night, a far more experienced opponent who currently holds a professional record of 17-11.
Mahamed Aly announced that he will be making his professional MMA debut at PCS 4: Bud Light Fight Night in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
