Brandon Halsey’s win at PFL 2 against Smealinho Rama was downright crazy — but so too was the Illinois athletic commission’s ruling of when the fight ended, which cost Halsey a point in the PFL light heavyweight tournament.
Brandon Halsey notoriously referred to PFL 2 opponent Smealinho Rama as “Smelly Rama” prior to their light heavyweight bout in Chicago on Thursday. When Halsey was nearly finished at the end of the first round, and ate a head kick from the Canadian in the second, it seemed like Halsey might be eating his words. Yet in a come-from-behind victory, Halsey would go on to dominate the second round, opening up a nasty cut on Rama in the process.
The doctor stopped the fight between rounds, and Halsey had the win. Plus a bonus point for the finish, under the PFL tournament’s scoring system. Just one point, mind you, after the Illinois Athletic Commission ruled the fight ended at 0:01 of the third round, rather than 5:00 of the second.
Halsey addressed the craziness of the bout speaking to the media afterward. “That’s what fighting’s about though, right?” he opined. However, he wasn’t too happy with how the win came about. “It’s always enjoyable when you get the win, but the fashion I did it in wasn’t too pleasing to me.”
“I came in a little too heavy” he admitted in regards to his preparation for the fight, promising to change things up for the next round. “Come in a lot lighter, that way I’m a little bit more quicker” he promised.
As for getting the win, “I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to implement my pressure on him. It was a little bit of a slow start,” he accepted, adding “I felt a little sluggish. But I knew my wrestling and my positioning would overcome, and I saw that opening, opened him up, and just went for the kill.”
What Halsey didn’t get from the fight was that extra point, since the fight in reality stopped before the third round. “I don’t understand that, he didn’t even answer the bell in the third round. So I just don’t know how they justify that one second into the third round when he didn’t answer the bell,” Halsey said. “That was a little strange, hopefully they do it a second round stoppage like it was.”
“There’s no way you could say he went a second into the third, because he didn’t answer the bell,” Halsey added.
Watch the full PFL 2 post-fight interview with Brandon Halsey above!
