Stevie Ray talks Anthony Pettis wins and advancing to PFL lightweight championship
Stevie Ray has had quite the ride to the PFL lightweight championship.
His PFL journey got started after in what was one of the lowest points in Ray’s life.
In October of 2019, Ray was in the UFC and just won the biggest fight of his career when he defeated Michael Johnson.
Following the big win, the coronavirus pandemic started and Ray suffered a knee injury. After having issues getting a fight during the pandemic and his knee not healing properly, the UFC decided to cut Ray and after being cut from the UFC, Ray continued to have issues with his knee and thought his career was over with.
Eventually, the knee did heal up and Ray made the decision it was time to fight again and signed with the PFL this year being out of competition for over two years.
While his first PFL outing was a loss, Ray rebounded in a big way as he scored a submission win over former UFC champion Anthony Pettis that went viral.
The win got Ray into the PFL lightweight tournament where in once again got matched up with Pettis and this time secured a unanimous decision win to advance to the fights where he’ll meet Olivier Aubin-Mercier.
Following his recent victory, Ray spoke with MyMMANews about his journey from getting cut by the UFC to advancing to the PFL lightweight final, his back-to-back wins over Pettis and he previewed his upcoming championship fight.
You can hear everything Ray had to say by watching his full interview in the video above.
A full list of results from 2022 PFL Playoffs: Lightweights and Light Heavyweights are listed below:
Stevie Ray defeated Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Omari Akhmedov defeated Josh Silveira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Olivier Aubin-Mercier defeated Alexander Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
Rob Wilkinson defeated Delan Monte via KO (knee) at 1:37 of Round 1
Itso Babulaidze defeated Mahmoud Sebie via TKO (uppercut and punches) at 4:30 of Round 1
Marthin Hamlet defeated Cory Hendricks via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Brahyan Zurcher defeated Ricardo Jimenez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Elvin Espinosa defeated Corey Jackson via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Alexei Pergande defeated Elvis Lebron Quiles via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Marcelo Nunes defeated Dylan Potter via submission (arm triangle) – Round 1, 1:47
