After a 25-second knockout of Jamelle
Jones in his first fight of the 2022 PFL season, Renan
Ferreira was confident of another impressive showing against
Klidson
Abreu in his second outing on June 24.
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A finish would have guaranteed “Problema” a top seed in the
heavyweight playoffs, but an ankle injury suffered in sparring
during the last week of camp hindered Ferreira enough that he lost
a unanimous decision to Abreu.
“I had a [300-pound] sparring partner fall over my ankle. On the
first kick Klidson landed I felt a strong pain, and that prevented
me from imposing my game,” Ferreira told Sherdog.com.
Despite the loss, Ferreira secured a spot in the PFL postseason,
where he is scheduled to square off against Ante Delija
in one semifinal matchup. Ferreira had the injury checked out as
soon as he returned to Rio de Janeiro.
“Thank´s God it was just a sprain and I was able to recover in
time,” he said. “In one more week I´ll be training 100%.”
Now Ferreira is expecting a difficult matchup against Delija.
“As a ‘Cro Cop’ pupil, Ante has a good striking technique and also
good cage work, so we will have to work on some nice tactics to
neutralize that and reach the final,” Ferreira said.
Ferreira also offered his thoughts on the other heavyweight
semifinal between Denis
Goltsov and defending champ Bruno
Cappelozza.
“It´s gonna be a great fight,” Ferreira said. “Capelozza is more
aggressive, always walking forward, while Goltsov is more strategic
and will probably try to neutralize him by taking Bruno down. But I
think Bruno will impose his game and win, so we will have a
Brazilian final.”