Anthony Pettis suffered an upset defeat last night in the PFL organization in his first fight since leaving the UFC.
Pettis had been fighting another ex-UFC fighter in Clay Collard, who had only gone 1-3 during his time in the Octagon back in 2014-2015, but had gone 4-1 on the regional circuit in the years since.
That included some lengthy spells out of action though, including a two-year absence leading into last night’s fight, so Pettis, who had won his last two UFC fights, was a big favorite to emerge victorious against him.
Things didn’t go according to plan though for the former UFC lightweight champion as Collard had a good first round and then turned up the heat further in the second, dropping Pettis and coming close to finishing him with punches.
To his credit, Pettis regrouped and had a big third round, dropping Collard with a head kick and then following up with a flying knee to the head as he rose back up, but his opponent showed his toughness to ride out that storm and secure a unanimous decision victory (29-27 x2, 29-28).
The first PFL event of 2021 proved to be a decision-heavy night of upsets as two-time PFL lightweight champion Natan Schulte was defeated on the scorecards by Marcin Held, while Lance Palmer’s 11-fight winning streak was brought to an end by another underdog, Bubba Jenkins.
Main Card
Clay Collard def. Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-28)
Marcin Held def. Natan Schulte via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Movlid Khaibulaev def. Lazar Stojadinovic via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Bubba Jenkins def. Lance Palmer via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Prelims
Brendan Loughnane def. Sheymon Moraes via KO (punch) – Round 1, 2:55
Raush Manfio def. Joilton Lutterbach via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Akhmed Aliev def. Mikhail Odintsov via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Chris Wade def. Anthony Dizy via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Tyler Diamond def. Jo Sung Bin via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Alexander Martinez def. Loik Radzhabov via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
