PFL 4 Fight Night at the OTE Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June 17, 2022. (Matt Ferris / PFL)
Natan Schulte evens score, wins rematch with Marcin Held at PFL 4
The Professional Fighters League returns to us tonight, June 17, 2022, for PFL 4, going down live from the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, to showcase their lightweight and light-heavyweight divisions.
Headlining the event is a lightweight bout between UFC veteran Clay Collard and Alexander Martinez, both of which have gone 1-0 thus far into the 2022 season.
Former two-time PFL lightweight champion Natan Schulte faced Marcin Held, the first man to defeat him inside the PFL cage, for the second time tonight in an elimination bout.
Continue reading to see how this epic rematch went down:
Official Result: Natan Schulte def. Marcin Held via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
These two absolutely went to war the first time they met back in April of last year, with Held being awarded the unanimous decision victory when really, it could’ve went either way. It was such a back-and-forth dogfight.
And, it wasn’t the fight we expected.
Held is one of the better BJJ talents in the entire sport of mixed martial arts, primarily with his leg locks, and the same could be said for Schulte regarding his Judo. We saw them go toe-to-toe the entire 15 minutes on the feet.
Schulte begins the rematch with a jab followed by a calf kick, and he immediately begins to back Held up.
Held spends the entire first round on the backfoot, though he’s able to land some nice counter punches. He goes for two rolling leglocks in the first, neither of which worked as Schulte was wise to them.
Held does secure a momentary takedown, effortlessly at that, as Schulte was moving toward him.
But, Schulte gets up just as easily and gets right back to work.
Schulte’s boxing is looking good, he is generally getting the better of the exchanges. Held is definitely landing some of his own strikes, but it’s not been enough through the first ten minutes.
Round three is more of the same, only Schulte ends the round more aggressively than the first or second in search of the knockout. 15 more minutes between these two and we still haven’t seen them grapple. That’s a tad unfortunate.
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