Former PFL featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane took on former Bellator title challenger Pedro Carvalho in PFL’s co-main event in Chicago.
After his 2022 title-winning season, Loughnane got off to a hot start in 2023 but ultimately disappointed as he suffered a knockout loss to eventual champion Jesus Pinedo and missed the playoffs.
His first fight back from that loss came against Carvalho, the Portuguese SBGI product who has lost five of seven fights since working his way up to a title shot against Patricio Pitbull in 2020. Loughnane was a massive favorite at six-to-one odds, which was proven valid as he got an early knockout win, despite a controversial early stoppage.
Carvalho came out in his bouncy karate stance trying to get into and out of range quickly. However, Brendan caught him with a right hand that began the end of the fight. Loughnane chased him down, and just as Pedro began to recover he got caught again. This time he went down. Carvalho did well to avoid ground and pound. Although he did take some shots he worked his way back up to his knees, where he stayed for a while trying to bait Brendan in so he could grab a leg. He did take a few punches but seemed to be relatively okay, yet the referee made a bizarre choice to stop the fight, not even as he was taking a punch but as Pedro was moving forward to attempt a low single leg takedown from his knees.
Carvalho protested the stoppage and the crowd booed noisily when they saw the replay, but it was too late to change the result. The general consensus, however, was that the stoppage came quite early.
Despite the poor stoppage, it was an impressive showing for former champion Brendan Loughnane, earning a quick six points in PFL’s featherweight regular season, shooting the Brit into a tie for first place with last year’s runner up, Gabriel Braga.
Official Result: Brendan Loughnane def. Pedro Carvalho by TKO (punches), Round 1, 1:26
