Renan
Ferreira operating at peak performance should strike some fear
into all of his peers.
The 6-foot-8 Brazilian dispatched Maurice
Greene with first-round punches, as their
Professional Fighters League heavyweight semifinal served as
the
PFL 8 headliner on Friday inside The Theater at Madison Square
Garden in New York.
Ferreira (11-3, 5-1 PFL) slammed the door 4:46 into Round
1.
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Greene (11-9, 1-3 PFL) tried to keep his counterpart at bay with
leg kicks, but with each passing moment, the disparity in talent
became more and more evident. Ferreira connected with body-head
jabs, crisp low kicks of his own and clean multi-punch
combinations. Eventually, he walked Greene into a devastating
counter right hand. “The Crochet Boss” folded where he stood and
hit the deck, where he was met with a burst of punches that
separated him from his senses.
Riding high on the strength of back-to-back victories, Ferreira
advances to face Denis
Goltsov in the $1,000,000 heavyweight final in November.
Goltsov (32-7, 10-2 PFL) disposed of the previously unbeaten
Jordan
Heiderman with
an arm-triangle choke in the first round of their heavyweight
semifinal. The former Absolute Championship Berkut
titleholder drew the curtain 4:16 into Round 1 and won for the
fourth time in as many outings.
Heiderman (7-1, 0-1 PFL) was out of his depth. Goltsov drowned him
with jabs, lured him into the clinch and secured a takedown inside
the first 90 seconds. Once the bout spilled onto the canvas, it was
essentially over. Goltsov bloodied the Nebraskan with brutal
ground-and-pound, moved from one dominant position to the next and
framed the choke from half guard. From there, his vice-like squeeze
left Heiderman no choice but to tap.
It was the 17th first-round finish of Goltsov’s career.
Meanwhile, Larissa
Pacheco took the next step forward in her quest to become a
two-division champion, as she buried Olena
Kolesnyk with
punches in the first round of their women’s featherweight
semifinal. Kolesnyk (9-6, 4-4 PFL), who missed weight
for the match by nearly two pounds, checked out just 14 seconds
into Round 1.
Pacheco (22-4, 11-2 PFL) tested the waters with an inside leg kick,
then froze the Ukrainian with a surgical straight right. Kolesnyk
covered up along the fence, absorbed another crushing right and
assumed a seated position at the base of the cage. More punches
followed before referee Bryan Miner could arrive on the scene to
wave it off. It was a massacre.
Now on an eight-fight tear, Pacheco moves on to meet Marina
Mokhnatkina in the $1,000,000 women’s featherweight final in
November. Mokhnatkina (11-3, 5-1 PFL) put away Combat Sports
Academy product Amber
Leibrock with
an armbar in the first round of their women’s featherweight
semifinal. The six-time World Sambo Championships gold
medalist brought it to a close 1:45 into Round 1, where she
recorded her fifth consecutive victory.
Leibrock (7-6, 1-2 PFL) never factored into the equation.
Mokhnatkina followed her jab into the clinch, executed a trip
takedown and went to work from north-south position. She isolated
Leibrock’s right arm as she progressed to half guard, then cleared
her legs, went belly-down for a brief moment and eventually rolled
onto her back to complete the submission.
The 35-year-old Leibrock heads into the offseason on a two-fight
losing streak.
In other action, Nathan
Kelly (8-2, 3-0 PFL) laid claim to a unanimous decision over
Damion
Nelson (4-4, 0-1 PFL) in a three-round featherweight tilt,
drawing 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 marks from the cageside judges;
Danilo
Marques (15-5, 3-1 PFL) took a unanimous verdict from Satoshi
Ishii (25-13-1, 1-3 PFL) in a three-round heavyweight affair;
and Maira Mazar
(9-6, 1-1 PFL) eked out a split decision—28-29, 29-28, 29-28—over
Kaytlin
Neil (7-5, 0-2 PFL) in a three-round women’s flyweight pairing.