PhotoCred: Drake Riggs
Loik Radzhabov To Meet Raush Manfio For PFL LW Championship At PFL 10
The Professional Fighters League returns to us tonight, August 13, for their seventh event of the 2021 season.
The event showcased semi-final match ups in their lightweight & welterweight divisions, giving us the finalists of both weight classes once the four-fight main card was over.
First up was the lightweights, starting out with 2019 finalist Loik Radzhabov and the man to defeat him in their first fights of the season, Alex Martinez.
That was a very back-and-forth fight that showed Martinez victorious via split decision. Since then, Martinez lost to two-time PFL lightweight champion Natan Schulte, the man Radzhabov lost the 2019 finale to.
Radzhabov is now coming off a first round TKO victory over Akhmed Aliev, who he dispatched of in just 27 seconds.
How it went down:
Radzhabov came out with heavy pressure to start the first round, and he kept that pace the entire three rounds.
That’s not to say Martinez was no match for him, he fought at a high pace himself and kept the action going both ways, just as their first fight went. However, Radzhabov is clearly winning the rounds with his wrestling and heavy hands.
Martinez does catch Radzhabov with a guillotine choke at the end of round three, which forced Radzhabov to a disadvantage position, but he was safe from danger and did enough to win on the scorecards.
Radzhabov out-struck Martinez 69-44 in total strikes and took him down six times.
Official Result: Loik Radzhabov def. Alex Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
It appears Loik Radzhabov will get another chance to claim the belt so many believed he would all along, and he did so by avenging a defeat in the process.
The second semi-final lightweight bout of the night was contested between Clay Collard and Raush Manfio, both of which defeated former WEC & UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis earlier this year.
The Manfio decision was quite disputed, but Collard battered Pettis for 14 of those 15 minutes.
Collard is now coming off a split decision victory over Joilton Lutterbach, while Manfio also defeated Lutterbach via split decision, but did so earlier on in the year, and is coming off his victory over Pettis most recently.
How it went down:
Collard has success with his boxing early on and wins round one based on his output, he touched Manfio up throughout. Then in round two his pace slowed a little, and Manfio probably won most of the round, until he ate a serious of shovel hooks and fell to his back.
Collard then proceeded to attempt a submission from back mount, but was unable to do so and we were going to round three.
Manfio certainly did more in the third round, as he’s been known to do in the past. His striking looking great, as he landed a number of hard kicks and punches to the fatigued Collard.
This is a tough one, it depends on how the judges scored round two. One would think Collard did enough though.
Official Result: Raush Manfio def. Clay Collard via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Despite all four commentators scoring it for Collard, as well as the universal scorecard of fan votes scoring it for Collard, Manfio gets by with yet another controversial decision victory.
He now faces fellow semi-final winner Loik Radzhabov in the season finale at PFL 10 on October 27.
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