Loughran's PFL fight against Arce 'career-defining'

Tyrone featherweight Caolan Loughran said his upcoming PFL fight against Julio Arce in Austin, Texas will be a "career-defining" bout.

Loughran returns to action for his second fight at featherweight on Saturday, 18 July against American Arce following an impressive first round submission win over Alan Philpott in Belfast in April.

The 30-year-old believes that Arce, who spent six years in the UFC, will represent a step up in quality, but that a big win can propel him closer to a title shot while a loss will be damaging to those ambitions.

"It's a huge fight, it's career-defining, almost, you go one way or the other. It's like snakes and ladders MMA," he told BBC Sport NI's Michael Markey.

"I'm looking at the top five of the PFL and I'm one or two away from a title fight. If I lose, I'm not in a good spot put it that way but it's a really big fight against a really seasoned opponent.

"I don't like to say biggest fight of my life, because every fight is the biggest, but definitely an important one."

Loughran lost to Jack Cartwright in a catchweight bout on his PFL debut last year, but bounced back well to defeat Philpott at the SSE Arena.

Arce, 36, suffered a unanimous decision defeat against Alexei Pergande in his last fight in March and Loughran hopes that time is catching up with the veteran and that he can use that to his advantage.

"In terms of technical weaknesses, there's not a lot there. He's a well-rounded martial artist, but we all have a limit in this game of how many shots we can take and if you watch his fights, a lot are stand up wars, no one is trying to take him down," Loughran explained.

"[He's] maybe a wee bit long in the tooth and too experienced so I need to jump on him early and use it against him.

"I've been watching his most recent fights, but I've been preparing for the prime version of him and I'm expecting that."