Brendan Loughnane opens up the season with bout opposing Marlon Moraes at PFL 1

Brendan Loughnane returns against Marlon Moraes

The Professional Fighters League returns to us this coming April for three back-to-back-to-back events beginning on April 1 for PFL 1, followed up by PFL 2 on April 7, before PFL 3 goes down a week later on April 14.

As it currently stands, there are two fights booked for each event thus far, the first of which coming at PFL 1 where a pair of 2022 champions return to the cage.

Former UFC light-heavyweight title challenger Thiago Santos (22-11) faces PFL 2022 light-heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson (17-2), and PFL 2022 featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane (26-4) faces former WSOF bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes (23-11-1) at this event.

Brendan Loughnane has quickly become one of the premier 145 lb fighters on the planet, someone Dana White passed up following his Contender Series victory in June of 2019. Loughnane went into that fight with a record of 17-3, and since then he’s lost just once to undefeated (19-0-1) PFL 2021 champion Movlid Khaybulaev.

Since then Loughnane has gone 4-0, three victories of which came last year in 2022 where he TKO’d Bubba Jenkins in round four to capture the title, becoming the first ever English PFL champion in history.

What’s more, he’s 11-1 in his last 12 outings, and he’s never been finished.

In fact, Loughnane’s last three defeats all come via split decision, and he boasts wins over a number of UFC veterans including Mike Wilkinson (KO), avenging the first defeat of his career, Bill Algeo (UD), Sheymon Moraes (KO), and Chris Wade (UD).

Another thing to add about Loughnane; three of his defeats come against UFC veterans, and the only non-UFC veteran he ever lost to is undefeated through 21 professional fights. He’s also a former FCC lightweight and CG featherweight title holder.

Marlon Moraes on the other hand is one of the most well rounded, most dangerous fighters to ever grace an MMA cage, though he’s dealt with quite a hard fall as of late.

Moraes began his career with a record of 7-4-1, before going on an absolute tear winning his next 11-straight.

This saw him capture and defend the WSOF bantamweight championship six times, securing five finishes in that time. Next up was his UFC debut, where he lost a razor-thin split decision to longtime staple Raphael Assuncao.

Moraes then won his next four-straight against the likes of John Dodson (SD), current UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling (KO), Jimmie Rivera (KO), and Raphael Assuncao (guillotine choke) in their rematch.

This set Moraes up for a vacant bantamweight title fight where after an incredible start, he ultimately lost to then flyweight champion Henry Cejudo in round three (TKO). He’d win his next fight against former longtime WEC & UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (SD) in a very close and disputed encounter, before losing his last five-straight fights.

That fifth-straight loss made him 1-6 in his last seven, all six defeats coming via knockout.

But, he returns to 145 lbs for the first time since 2012 at PFL 1 to face the best featherweight they have on the roster.

Who walks away from this bout going down at PFL 1 the victor?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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