Denis Goltsov out-wrestles Maurice Greene for three rounds at PFL 5

The Professional Fighters League returns to us tonight, June 24, 2022, for PFL 5, going down live from the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tonight’s event is to showcase our lightweight & heavyweight divisions and is to be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Bruno Cappelozza (15-5) and Matheus Scheffel (15-8).

Co-headlining the event is a lightweight bout between former WEC & UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis (25-12) and fellow UFC veteran Stevie Ray (23-10).

Denis Goltsov (28-7) opened up the main card tonight opposing another UFC veteran in Maurice Greene (10-6).

The Russian has gone 6-2 thus far in PFL, making it 1-0 thus far into the season, while Greene makes his promotional debut and is coming off a win following his departure with the UFC.

Continue reading to see how this epic heavyweight encounter went down:

Official Result: Denis Goltsov def. Maurice Greene via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Greene gets to work with his striking from the outside, before Goltsov ties him up along the fence. Goltsov then secures a body lock trip takedown and remains on top for the remaining four minutes of the first.

Goltsov goes for an arm-triangle, but is unable to secure it, though he does hold mount for a good portion of the latter part of round one.

Greene goes for a takedown of his own to start the second but strains a bit too hard and ends up on his back.

Goltsov again claims mount, but is eventually stood up with two minutes left in the round.

After a big deep breathe from the Russian, Greene again ties up with Goltsov, but again ends up on bottom, where he finishes the round. Greene is going to need a finish in the third to win this fight.

Goltsov secures another takedown to start the third, though they’re again stood up in the middle stretch of the round. However, it didn’t matter, as Goltsov takes Greene down once again, ending the fight on top for the universal 30-27 scorecard.

One thing could be said about Greene, who was seen smoking cigarettes on The Ultimate Fighter 28; his endurance has improved immensely. He was the fresher party of the two from the second round on. It wasn’t enough though, as the Russian prospect dominated this fight, improving to 2-0 in PFL’s 2022 season.

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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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