Former WSOF featherweight champion Alexandre Almeida might regret losing his title a couple years back.
Know what would probably make him feel better? A million bucks. Starting tonight, he goes on a quest for just that when the Professional Fighters League kicks off its debut season. The eventual playoff winners in six weight classes will win $1 million each, and Almeida is counting on being there at the end.
“I fight for my family,” the Brazilian recently told MMAjunkie. “This tournament will change my life. I’m focused on that. I’ll be the champion.”
PFL 1 takes place Friday at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The main card airs on NBCSN following early fights on Facebook. It’s the first regular-season event for the promotion that rose up in the wake of WSOF. Fighters will earn points in the regular season, then be seeded in the playoffs this fall.
Almeida (18-7) takes on England’s Lee Coville (4-1) in his first fight of the regular season. Casual fans may not know Coville, but Almeida said he’s not taking him lightly given his experience in muay Thai and K-1 kickboxing.
“If he’s facing me, he’s on my level,” Almeida said. “It doesn’t matter if he only has a few MMA fights. We don’t know how much he trains or how powerful he is, so he won’t be underestimated. I’ll face him as anyone else intent on beating me. … If the promotion chose him to face me, it must be because he’s on my level. So I’ll fight him as if he’s a world champion. I fight every time as if it’s the last time. I don’t focus on my opponents. I focus on my own abilities, and on what I do best.”
Almeida also has some motivation to get back in the win column after back-to-back losses to close out his WSOF tenure. In late 2015, he took a unanimous decision from Lance Palmer to win the promotion’s featherweight title. But in their rematch seven months later, he lost on the judges’ scorecards.
That’s not a fight that sits well with him. Nor is his follow-up in March 2017, a split-decision loss to Steven Rodriguez. But the key is putting all that behind him to focus on the much bigger task at hand with a big prize at the end of the journey if everything goes his way.
Know what would probably make him feel better? A million bucks. Starting tonight, he goes on a quest for just that when the Professional Fighters League kicks off its debut season. The eventual playoff winners in six weight classes will win $1 million each, and Almeida is counting on being there at the end.
“I fight for my family,” the Brazilian recently told MMAjunkie. “This tournament will change my life. I’m focused on that. I’ll be the champion.”
PFL 1 takes place Friday at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The main card airs on NBCSN following early fights on Facebook. It’s the first regular-season event for the promotion that rose up in the wake of WSOF. Fighters will earn points in the regular season, then be seeded in the playoffs this fall.
“If he’s facing me, he’s on my level,” Almeida said. “It doesn’t matter if he only has a few MMA fights. We don’t know how much he trains or how powerful he is, so he won’t be underestimated. I’ll face him as anyone else intent on beating me. … If the promotion chose him to face me, it must be because he’s on my level. So I’ll fight him as if he’s a world champion. I fight every time as if it’s the last time. I don’t focus on my opponents. I focus on my own abilities, and on what I do best.”
Almeida also has some motivation to get back in the win column after back-to-back losses to close out his WSOF tenure. In late 2015, he took a unanimous decision from Lance Palmer to win the promotion’s featherweight title. But in their rematch seven months later, he lost on the judges’ scorecards.
That’s not a fight that sits well with him. Nor is his follow-up in March 2017, a split-decision loss to Steven Rodriguez. But the key is putting all that behind him to focus on the much bigger task at hand with a big prize at the end of the journey if everything goes his way.
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