Tyrone's Caolan Loughran said if he loses his second PFL fight against Ballymena's Alan Philpott on 16 April then he is "finished".

The 29-year-old was beaten by Jack Cartwright on his PFL debut in December, his third career defeat in 13 fights.

Ahead of his next fight at Belfast's SSE Arena on Thursday, Loughran spoke of how the "gutting result" against Cartwright "changed up everything" and how he must bounce back against Philpott.

"If I lose to him I am finished. What stock do I have then?" he told BBC Sport NI.

"I've got a lot of new things going into this fight, so a loss would set me back, I can't overlook Alan."

Philpott 'stylistically perfect' for Loughran

Loughran recalls being in the crowd to watch Philpott's loss to Tom Duquesnoy in a BAMMA world bantamweight title bout in Dublin in 2016 and thinks the 33-year-old is "stylistically perfect for me".

"I have a new team here, I've been home and in the gym training two times a day every day since November, working on a lot of things," he explained.

"I had been in Liverpool for the last seven years, so I've come back and I was originally meant to fight Sarvarjon Khamidov and that was a hard fight I had taken, but would be hard to look good in even winning, whereas with a new team his (Alan's) style is perfect to show what we've been working on."

Loughran left the UFC after his four-fight deal ended in March 2025 and signed for PFL in a lucrative deal in May last year.

He said a return to Belfast for a second time as a professional is the "stuff of dreams" especially for a show of this size.

"My whole amateur career was in Belfast, but as a professional I have only fought once, co-main event when Rhys won the Cage Warriors title (in June 2022 when Loughran beat Festus Ahorlu). It was an unbelievable night and this is obviously a much bigger scale at PFL.

"Since that, I've went on and won a Cage Warriors title in Rome and fighting in the UFC in Paris and America and PFL in Dubai.

"A lot has happened since I fought in Belfast, so for a lot of people that support me it's the first time they can come watch me. It's a dream come true."