Lance Palmer vs Chris Wade booked for PFL 2 on April 28
The Professional Fighters League has quickly become one of the world’s premier mixed martial arts promotions.
PFL just announced their first two fight cards of the season, one of which being a featherweight contest between two-time PFL featherweight champion, former LFA & WSOF champion Lance Palmer, who faces last year’s finalist, fellow standout wrestler and UFC veteran, former ROC lightweight champion Chris Wade.
This bout is to go down at PFL 2 on April 28, 2022, at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
This is such an interesting bout for so many reasons, it’s quite remarkable they haven’t been matched up until now.
Once WSOF rebranded into PFL, Lance Palmer quickly went 11-0 inside the new promotion, winning the tournament, and PFL championship in both 2018 & 2019. However, due to Covid-19, PFL took their 2020 season off, and Palmer returned to go 0-2 last year in 2021, losing to both Bubba Jenkins and Movlid Khaybulaev.
What’s more, he lost five of those six rounds fought.
Then we have Chris Wade, who came to the PFL in 2018, following his latest win in the UFC.
Wade would go 2-2 in his debut year, losing both defeats to two-time PFL lightweight champion Natan Schulte.
Wade then went 3-1 in the 2019 season, only losing to last years finalist Loik Radzhabov, before having a repeat 3-1 year last year once dropping down to 145 lbs, this time losing the finals to 2021 PFL featherweight champion Movlid Khaybulaev.
The gameplan for each man is always evident, as they continuously want to take their opponents down.
Palmer is an NCAA Division I national championships finalist, having come in second place back in 2010. He also placed third at the Big 10 Championships twice, and won it his final year in college.
He also went 150-6 in high school, and 121-33 in college, becoming a four-time All-American at the D1 level.
Wade on the other hand didn’t wrestle at that high of a level, but was a state champion in high school, and also came in second place at the NJCAA national championships, before going to an NCAA Division III school.
The UFC veteran too claimed All-American honors, and he also spent some time in amateur kickboxing competition, laying claim to a title in that sport as well whilst going undefeated.
Though they have impressive wrestling backgrounds however, both men have been out-wrestled before.
Wade had issues with Rustam Khabilov and Islam Makhachev back in the UFC, as well as Khaybulaev in his last fight for instance, while Palmer was out-wrestled in both of his bouts last year against Jenkins and Khaybulaev.
Palmer comes into the bout with a record of 22-5, having just turned 35 years old in January, while Wade comes into the bout with a record of 20-7, and he’ll be turning 35 in September.
Both men come from wrestling backgrounds, both men have 27 fights, both are in their mid-30’s, Wade boasts 14 decision wins while Palmer has 13, it’s very exciting we’ll finally be able to witness this epic featherweight clash.
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