Josh Copeland proved he’s ridiculously tough, but that wasn’t enough to stop Philipe Lins, who scored a fourth-round TKO to win the PFL heavyweight title and $1 million prize at PFL 11.
The heavyweight playoff final was the co-main event of today’s PFL 11 show at Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York. It aired on NBCSN. Lins (14-3) finished the fight early in the fourth round after hurting Copeland (18-6-1) with a punishing onslaught of strikes.
After nearly two full rounds of back-and-forth striking exchanges that were closely contested, but caused no real impact, Lins achieved the first truly meaningful moment of the fight toward the end of the second frame. He staggered Copeland with a hard right low kick followed by a left hook that put him on the ground. Lins jumped on him and attempted to finish the fight with a flurry of ground-and-pound, but with short time on the clock, his corner told him to pull back and conserve his energy for the remainder of the fight.
Lins came out in the third with a noticeable confidence advantage. He started to put more into the punches and string together combinations, and while Copeland continued to push forward, he was getting lost in all the offense coming his way and losing some of his steam. A clash of heads caused a cut under Lins left eye, and with blood pouring out, he was clearly frustrated by what happened. He didn’t let it slow him down, though, because he kept hammering Copeland and his ridiculously durable chin with more shots. Copeland took tons of damage in the round, but somehow kept standing until the horn.
Lins senses the kill in the opening seconds of the fourth frame. He went right after Copeland, locked in a muay-Thai clinch then unleashed a hard series of knees to the body followed by a punch to the face that was enough for referee Dan Miragliotta. He stepped in and stopped the contest at the 0:30 mark of Round 4, giving him the heavyweight belt.
“I want to thank all my coaches,” Lins said through an interpreter during his post-fight interview with Carolyn Pierce. “This is for my dad. If this was my dad’s last day on Earth he would be a very, very happy man. I couldn’t be happier. This is a dream come true, really.”
Up-to-the-minute PFL 11 results include:
- Philipe Lins def. Josh Copeland via TKO (strikes) – Round 4, 0:30 – to win heavyweight championship
- Sean O’Connell def. Vinny Magalhaes via TKO (corner stoppage) – Round 3, 5:00
- Kayla Harrison def. Moriel Charneski via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:39
- Natan Schulte def. Rashid Magomedov via unanimous decision (48-46, 48-46, 48-46) – to win lightweight title
- Lance Palmer def. Steven Siler via unanimous decision (50-43, 50-45, 49-46) – to win featherweight title
- Louis Taylor def. Abusupiyan Magomedov via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 0:33 – to win middleweight title
For complete coverage of PFL 11, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
from MMAjunkie http://bit.ly/2s0pzp4
No comments:
Post a Comment