Underdog Once Again, PFL 4’s Raush Manfio Plans to Pay Out: “I’m Better Than Bitcoin, For Sure”

Atlanta, GA — PFL 2021 lightweight champ Raush Manfio is pretty much used to being the underdog at this point.

Despite having won five straight fights, all under the PFL banner, and cashing out with a million dollars in prize money after claiming the championship last season, Manfio (16-3) is the underdog once more at PFL 4. This time, he’s up against former UFC star Olivier Aubin-Mercier.

Truth be told, Brazil’s Manfio doesn’t even care about the odds at this point.

“They need to make a movie, like The Brazilian Underdog. They just did the American Underdog, they need to make one for me too,” he joked during Wednesday’s PFL 4 media day.

“I don’t know, brother. I don’t care anymore,” he replied when asked about the odds-makers overlooking him. “I think this makes the history even greater. Praise to God, after the win, I’ll do my best. That’s all I can [do]. But I feel confident. I don’t know why they decided to put me as the underdog again, but I’m super-confident for this fight.”

In the end, Manfio just plans to keep making people money — even if he’s not a fan of betting himself. “I’m better than Bitcoin, for sure!” he exclaimed.

In his season opener, Raush Manfio scored a KO of UFC veteran Don Madge, and he’ll face another in OAM. That said, he wasn’t happy with his first performance of 2022.

“I don’t like my performance at all from the last fight. The only thing I learned, for me, last fight, when I decide ‘okay now it’s my turn,’ I finish the fight. When I really push him,” explained Manfio. “Because he was scoring points, I was like ‘okay, this isn’t hurting me, I’m going to wait for a good opportunity.’ But the opportunity didn’t come, so I need to create my opportunity.”

“When I decided to step in and exchange punches with him, I knocked him out,” Manfio added, going on to say that “I need to start my fights like I finish my fights. It’s easy to [say], but difficult to do, because as a counter-attack specialist, I always prefer when a guy pushes me.”

As far as the match-up with Aubin-Mercier, the Brazilian likes it — because it’s a tough one.

“Olivier I think is the worst guy they could have scheduled for me, [because of] his style,” he stated. “I had a really good camp, but tough training, because I really needed to train with better wrestlers than me.”

“It was a difficult camp, but I think I paid the price to win this fight during my camp.”

Watch the rest of Raush Manfio’s PFL 4 media day appearance above. Manfio faces off against Olivier Aubin-Mercier this Friday, June 17, 2022 in Atlanta, GA.