Clay
Collard had to earn his first Professional Fighters League
Championship appearance the hard way.
In a surefire “Fight of the Year” contender, Collard held off a
hard-charging Shane
Burgos to win a closely-contesting unanimous decision triumph
in the PFL 9 headliner at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in
New York on Wednesday night. All three cageside judges submitted
tallies in favor of Collard: 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28. The UFC
veteran will advance to face defending PFL champion Olivier
Aubin-Mercier in the lightweight final on Nov. 24.
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Collard (24-10, 6-2 PFL) set the tone early, utilizing his
trademark volume punching to the head and body to rack up a lead on
the scorecards. He backed Burgos (16-5, 1-2 PFL) into the fence
with a left hook-right hand combination in the opening stanza and
sat his foe down with a left hook in Round 2. The Team Tiger
Schulmann product was undeterred, however. He targeted Collard with
inside low kicks throughout the contest, a strategy that hindered
his opponent’s movement significantly down the stretch. That work,
combined with left hooks to the body and straight right hands,
allowed Burgos to make a strong statement in Round 3. Despite his
limited movement, Collard maintained his resolve, and both
combatants traded willingly in the pocket until the final horn.
Ultimately, Collard’s early push proved to be too much for Burgos
to overcome.
Meanwhile, Aubin-Mercier punched his ticket to a second consecutive
PFL final with a technical knockout victory against Bruno
Miranda in their lightweight semifinal. “The Canadian Gangster”
ended the contest with a salvo of punches and hammerfists from
mount at the 4:41 mark of Round 2. Miranda sees a seven-bout
winning streak snapped in defeat.
After a competitive opening stanza, Aubin-Mercier (20-5, 9-0 PFL)
made his move. He dropped Miranda (16-4, 2-1 PFL) with a left hand
early in the period and then quickly assumed top position. From
there, the UFC veteran methodically hammered away with
ground-and-pound while twice advancing to full mount. On the second
occasion, Aubin-Mercier increased the intensity of his output,
forcing referee Dan Miragliotta to step in on Miranda’s behalf.
Sadibou
Sy will get his chance to repeat as PFL welterweight king, as
he edged Carlos
Leal Miranda via split decision in their semifinal matchup. Two
judges scored it 29-28 for Sy (16-6-2, 10-4-2 PFL), while a third
saw it 29-28 in favor of Leal (19-5, 3-2 PFL). The Brazilian missed
weight ahead of the bout, so he either needed to win by finish or
to bank all three rounds on the scorecards to keep his title hopes
alive. Instead, Sy will advance to face Magomed
Magomedkerimov at the PFL Championships.
Sy was at his best in Round 1, where he landed a variety of kicks,
countered effectively with punches and punished Leal with knees in
close quarters. The bout became more of a grinding affair over the
course of the final 10 minutes. Leal kept Sy on his back for more
than three minutes in the second frame following a successful
takedown and spent a large portion of the final stanza pressing his
foe into the cage. Though he struggled to create space, Sy still
landed the more meaningful offense at range — and that proved to be
the difference.
It was more difficult than expected, but Magomedkerimov advanced to
the welterweight finals with a hard-fought unanimous decision
triumph over Solomon
Renfro. All three judges scored the bout 30-27 in favor of the
American Top Team representative, who will make his third
appearance in a PFL Championship.
Magomedkerimov (33-6, 15-1 PFL) did some of his best work in the
opening stanza, when he took Renfro (11-4, 1-1 PFL) down a little
more than halfway through the frame and methodically landed
ground-and-pound from top position. That would be the only time the
Dagestani could keep his opponent down for any significant period
of time, however, as Renfro demonstrated stout takedown defense and
scrambling ability for much of the bout.
Even then, Magomedkerimov controlled much of the action at range
behind disciplined boxing and the occasional lead leg head kick.
Renfro, a late replacement for Magomed
Umalatov, forced the action in the final stanza — even landing
a high-amplitude takedown with less than a minute remaining — but
it wasn’t enough to get the nod on the scorecards.
In other action: Biaggio
Ali Walsh scored a second-round technical knockout 2:23 into
Round 2 against Ed Davis in an
amateur lightweight contest; Alexei
Pergande (4-0, 3-0 PFL) cruised to a unanimous verdict (30-27,
30-27, 30-27) over Shawn
Stefanelli (4-3, 0-1 PFL) at featherweight; Mostafa
Rashed Nada (8-3, 1-0 PFL) stopped Korey Kuppe
(11-6, 0-1 PFL) with ground-and-pound 1:55 into the opening stanza
of their middleweight clash; Michelle
Montague (4-0, 1-0 PFL) submitted Abigail
Montes (4-3, 2-3 PFL) with a rear-naked choke at the 3:38 mark
of Round 2 in a women’s featherweight tilt; Abdullah
Al-Qahtani (7-1, 2-0 PFL) cruised to a lopsided unanimous
decision triumph (30-26, 30-26, 30-25) against David
Zelner (4-3, 0-1 PFL) at featherweight; and John
Caldone (5-1, 1-0 PFL) dispatched Nathaniel
Grimard (4-3, 0-1 PFL) with punches 2:32 into the opening
stanza at featherweight.