The tallest member of the PFL roster, Renan Ferreira lives up to his nickname, “The Problema,” inside the PFL SmartCage. He’s a heavy hitter and a quick finisher, with 11 of his 12 victories coming by stoppage, including 10 knockouts. After a no-contest with Rizvan Kuniev, Ferreira – the holder of the second and third-fastest knockouts in PFL heavyweight history – defeated Matheus Scheffel, Maurice Greene and Denis Goltsov to become the 2023 PFL heavyweight champion.

 

Ryan Bader already had a lot of hype going for him early in his career, but he took his talent to the next level upon his 2017 arrival to Bellator. Bader defeated Phil Davis to win the Bellator light heavyweight championship in his debut fight in the promotion. After retaining the title against Linton Vassell, Bader ran through Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal, Matt Mitrione and Fedor Emelianenko to capture the Bellator heavyweight championship and accomplish champ-champ status. While he may have lost the light heavyweight title to Vadim Nemkov and fallen short in Bellator’s Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, that hasn’t stopped Bader’s run at heavyweight, retaining against Valentin Moldavsky, Cheick Kongo and Emelianenko.

 

Who will reap all the rewards in this battle of heavyweight champions? And who will get the right to be the debut opponent for Francis Ngannou?

 

 

Round 1

 

Bader comes out on the front foot. Ferreira drops Bader with a right hand! He swarms on him with ground-and-pound! The fight is over just like that!

 

 

Renan Ferreira makes an impact! He wins it for the PFL, and he’s going to get Francis Ngannou!

 

 

OFFICIAL RESULT

 

PFL’s Renan “The Problema” Ferreira defeats Bellator’s Ryan Bader by 1st round TKO (0:21), winning the PFL Super Belt in the Heavyweight Division