Brendan
Loughnane had to adapt and overcome some mental hurdles after
suffering the first stoppage loss of his career.
In the 2023 regular season, the Brit was lumped up in 94 seconds by
Jesus
Pinedo, with a defeat that left Loughnane with five playoff
points—and not enough for the featherweight top four in the
playoffs. This put the 34-year-old on ice until April, when he
returned for the 2024 Professional Fighters League 145-pound tourney.
On Friday, Loughnane (27-5) bounced back in style at
PFL Chicago, drumming out Pedro
Carvalho in 86 seconds to get back in the win column.
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While his first fight of 2024 went his way, Loughnane explained in
the post-fight press conference that the loss to Pinedo haunted
him. Loughnane mentioned that he even considered leaving the sport
behind after the crushing defeat.
“That was the best Brendan
Loughnane,” he said during the post-fight press conference. “I don’t make excuses for
fights, but that’s the first time I’ve been healthy for so long…
I think I put the featherweight division and the world on notice to
get like, ‘Brendan’s a serious contender, yeah?’ I feel like people
forgot about me after the knockout a bit.”
The 2022 PFL champ continued, “‘Oh yeah Brendan, he wasn’t that
good anyway, he got knocked out.’ You know even I was half
considering, ‘Can I really do this anymore?’ After that knockout. I
suffered from it. I was knocked out, [for] fifteen minutes, didn’t
know where I was. Was watching the knockout back like, ‘wow, that
was weird.’ Now imagine that in over 50 contests, I’ve never been
dropped [or] knocked down [or] anything. So, I had to really think,
‘Is this me anymore?’ Then I started hard sparring and realized
that the chin still works and then the rest is history. I just bit
down on my gumshield, got training, went to Thailand. On Christmas
day, I started training for this moment on Christmas day. So, on
April 19, I stand here in front of you over the moon.”
The Manchester, England, native is now the points leader (six) in
the featherweight divisional standings, and is confident in his
ability to secure the 2024 PFL Championship along with the coveted
million-dollar prize.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t really see too much this year. I was
watching the screens thinking, ‘It’s wide open for me again.’ It
really is. That’s no disrespect to anyone else, I’m being deadly
honest. So, I look forward to June and another win,” he concluded.