PFL 4: Having Beat Two Champs, Olivier Aubin-Mercier Believes He’s the Lightweight Favorite

Atlanta, GA — Canada’s Olivier Aubin-Mercier is comfortably in the PFL 2022 post-season following PFL 4 on Friday.

“The Canadian Gangster,” or simply OAM, missed the playoffs last year, after being forced out of his first fight due to injury. He won his second bout of the season, but it wasn’t enough to break into the playoffs.

Fast forward to 2022, and Aubin-Mercier (15-5) has now won four straight fights, and has plenty of confidence after beating two PFL champs this season.

“I really think that I’m the favorite right now,” OAM said following the win on Friday, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I think I was the favorite in the beginning.”

That said, Aubin-Mercier knows his performance in Atlanta wasn’t his best. “It’s a weird feeling, because I think it was not my most exciting performance, but it was my easiest fight I think. It was good, and I do think Manfio knew he was doing the tournament anyway, so he didn’t take any risk to get hurt for next month,” he told Cageside Press. “So I really have a feeling that he didn’t really commit, and I mean, I won’t take any chances — there’s a million bucks at the end of the freaking tournament, so I won’t take a chance, I’m just going to beat him the easiest way. And it was the easiest way just to make a lot of feints, just touch him a little bit.”

Aubin-Mercier did admit that Manfio hurt him with a kick towards the end of the fight, but other than that, “I think he didn’t touch my face once. I think I hurt him in the body maybe once or twice, and I was landing some pretty good kicks to the legs too. Not the most exciting performance, but probably one of the good ones that I’ve had.”

But as for the performance not being his most exciting? Later, OAM said simply, “I’m 33 years old. I don’t care.”

Aubin-Mercier now moves on to the semi-finals, where he’ll meet Alex Martinez.

Watch the full PFL 4 post-fight press scrum with Olivier Aubin-Mercier above. More coverage from the event can be found below.