After its 2020 season was completely scrapped, Professional
Fighters League took the approach of many other organizations and
utilized a bubble for safety purposes during its 2021 campaign.
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The isolation and quarantining affected athletes in different ways,
but for two-time PFL featherweight champ Lance
Palmer, it was mostly a negative.
“All my coaches are real-life people that have their own families,
their own gyms or businesses that they run. They’re not people that
can sit for 17 days in a hotel with me just for my fight,” Palmer
said during PFL media day. “During the 17-day quarantine I was by
myself and did my own thing. Luckily one of my old teammates,
Tyler
Diamond, he was by himself also, and we made the best of it. We
drilled with each other, we trained with each other every day. But
it’s not the same as having your coaches there.”
The proof was in the results, as Palmer went 0-2 in 2021 after 11
consecutive victories from from November 2017 to December 2019.
“Last year, mentally, it made me not want to be there when I was
fighting,” Palmer said of the bubble format. “I think a lot of
people saw that. This is completely opposite of what last year
was.”
Palmer will attempt to get back on track when he squares off
against Chris Wade in
the PFL 2 co-feature at Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington,
Texas, on Thursday night. Wade was a finalist at featherweight last
season, losing to Movlid
Khaybulaev at the PFL Championships this past October.
“Chris has always been a tough opponent,” Palmer said. “Even when
he was fighting at 155 he was one of the more exciting guys in that
division. Even though he never won it at 55, he was really close a
couple times. He very well could have been a champ at 55 before he
dropped down to 45. He’s always been one of those guys that’s on
the radar as a game opponent.
“Having this fight as the first fight of the season, this is a
finals fight. Even though it’s only three rounds, I feel like it’s
a fight that could be treated as a finals fight anyway. We’re just
getting paid a lot less than we would if we were in the
finals.”
Palmer says he doesn’t need a tough opponent to motivate him,
however. Simply getting back to some semblance of normalcy has
changed his outlook for the better.
“I’m excited to fight this year. This year’s a lot different from
last year as far as the scenario we’re in, as far as no quarantine
and all that stuff we went through last year,” he said. “A lot of
people are more motivated to just in general to get back into the
cage and have a more normal life leading into the fight with fight
week only being a regular fight week.”
One thing Palmer does miss is the two-fights-in-one-night format
the PFL utilized for the opening round of its playoffs back in 2019
and 2018, when he was a repeat champion. This year, the promotion
is sticking with single bouts for its playoff entrants as it did a
year ago.
“I think it was a great format and that was what PFL was built on,
the two fights in one night, win-and-move-on type of style. I wish
it would’ve gone back to that, now that the pandemic is over,”
Palmer said. “That was the original reasoning for it, from what
I’ve heard. I know this is a different structure. This feels more
like the Bellator grand prix, where you fight your way through the
year in a different way, where the two fights in one night was more
of a grand prix style of Pride-style fighting. You had to win, go
in the back and get ready for your second fight. I think that was
more of a grind, to be honest. It’s a little different. It’s one
less fight. But also the two fights in one night, mentally it puts
you in a different place.
“I think it makes you better as a fighter to be able to go through
that, even if you only went through that one time in your fight
career. It’s really cool, and I think it’s a great concept. I was
very surprised when they got away from that.”