Rory MacDonald missed out on a spot in the PFL finals for the second year running as he was knocked out by short-notice replacement Dilano Taylor in Cardiff.
MacDonald, 33, was looking to progress to the welterweight final and compete for the $1million prize after coming up short in last year's semi-finals to Ray Cooper. The UFC veteran and former Bellator champion MacDonald was scheduled to fight Magomed Umalatov, but Taylor replaced the Russian on just two days' notice after the Russian was forced out due to visa issues.
Taylor started the fight well by fending off the early takedown attempts of MacDonald to keep the fight on the feet. 'The Postman' was looking sharp as he beat MacDonald to the punch and mixed in some hard low kicks. With just over a minute left in the first round, Taylor landed a right hand that dropped MacDonald and finished the fight with some follow-up ground and pound. Sadibou Sy, who beat Carlos Leal earlier on the card, will face Taylor in the welterweight final.
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"I'm not surprised, I already knew I had power in my right hand and I knew that my jab was really hard to beat my hard. My corner was telling me 'feet, move, hands and get the credit' so I was just making sure I kept my feet moving and jab pumping to set up the right hand. I'm just going to be in this moment right now, celebrate this win and then we're onto the next," Taylor said after his win.
Ante Delija secured a spot in the heavyweight final for the second year running after he stopped Renan Ferreira in the first round. The Croatian wasted no time in taking the 6'9" Ferreira down, finding himself in a position to land some heavy ground and pound. Delija secured the finish with less than 30 seconds left and will now rematch Matheus Scheffel in the final.
PFL boss Pete Murray said of the Cardiff event: "Wales was incredible. We had an amazing night of fights and the fans were electric from start to finish. We’re headed to London next and we’re expecting another incredible showing from the fighters and the fans. What makes us even more excited about this is that we’ll be launching PFL Europe next year, and we got a taste of just how good the fighters in the region are and just how amazing the European fans are. We can’t wait to get the ball rolling on PFL Europe."
