Renan Ferreira made the most out of his main event bid at the massive PFL vs. Bellator event earlier today (Sat., Feb. 24, 2024) live on ESPN+ PPV and DAZN PPV from inside Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, stopping Ryan Bader with a devastating TKO just 21 seconds into the first round.
Ferreira, who came into this bout as the undisputed PFL heavyweight champion, absolutely towered over Bader during Friday’s weigh ins (see HERE). He was the bigger, stronger, and younger fighter, so he was expected to do well atop Saturday’s historic Champ vs. Champ card. That said, nobody knew he’d wipe out Bader quite the way he did.
It took Ferreira less than 30 seconds to clobber Bader with a ferocious counter right hand. The punch connected flush and Bader went toppling to the canvas. Ferreira moved in for heavy ground-and-pound. The second he started to unload his power Bader covered up and flailed around to stay out of harm’s way. The referee had nothing left to do but step in.
Check out Ferreira’s crushing TKO win over “Darth” and more below:
While Ferreira looked tremendous and now becomes the unified heavyweight champion under the newly-formed PFL/Bellator banner he’s not going to leave Saudi Arabia a complete winner. That’s because Francis Ngannou — who is expected to fight Ferreira later this year in his long-awaited PFL debut — dipped out before the promotion could bring him into the cage for a staredown. Seems like an absolute miss by all parties.
For complete PFL vs. Bellator MMA results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
