Brendan Loughnane kicked off his PFL season with a bang, and he doesn’t plan on letting his foot off the gas pedal.
Loughnane (20-3) notched the top spot in the featherweight standings when he knocked out Sheymon Moraes in the first round at PFL 1. He will face Tyler Diamond next at PFL 4 on June 10 at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J.
Diamond also picked up a big win, but he went through an all-out war to get the job done against Sung Bin Jo. So it’ll be another stern test for the 31-year-old Brit, who thinks his experience will carry him through in producing another standout performance.
“I’ll tell you now, Brendan Loughnane’s had the toughest two preseason fights,” Loughnane told MMA Junkie. “Look at who Bubba and Lance are fighting. This time they’ve got two gimme fights, two last-minute replacements. I’ve had to fight Sheymon and Tyler, two guys with great records and great names, but I would prefer to do it this way. I want to win this tournament and beat all the best guys along the way. I don’t want to get to the end and they go, ‘But he had an easy road.’ I want the hardest road possible. I want the toughest fight and when I get there and win it, people will know how serious I am.
“I came out unscathed, I didn’t take one bit of damage, I don’t even think I took a shot to be honest, and I can see it going the same with Tyler. I’m just on a whole different level at the minute, and I’ve been trying to tell people for a long time. My experience, I’ve been on (Dana White’s Contender Series), I’ve been on ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ I’ve fought in Russia, I’ve fought in all these crazy organizations all over the world, and really I’ve got a few controversial losses, and I feel like it’s all coming to fruition. The cream always rise to the top, as they say.”
With Diamond (12-1) having gone through a war in which he was dropped multiple times less than two months ago, Loughnane certainly expects that to have an effect on his performance. He sees him implementing a heavy-grappling approach in their fight, but he’ll be ready.
“One hundred percent, how can it not play a factor?,” Loughnane said. “He’s still got a black eye now. The fact that he got dropped twice in that fight, it’s not gonna go down well when he fights me, another striker with great takedown defense. We know that Tyler is gonna try and wrestle. He might try and think he’s a boxer like he did in that fight, but he’s gonna try and wrestle.
“I’ve just spent five weeks, two hours every morning at Alliance MMA getting off my ass, defending wrestling. I was training with the NCAA champion. He’s just won the nationals, and we brought him in. He was wrestling the life out of me and man, I’m prepared. From the picture that I just posted and the physique and the shape that I’m in, the energy that I’m giving off, I just feel like this is my tournament.”
He continued, “Tyler Diamond is 1,000 percent gonna wrestle. No matter what he says in interviews or anywhere, he’s gonna wrestle. He’s a wrestler. Every strike he throws is to wrestling. He stood up with the Korean only because he couldn’t take him down. That’s the only reason. Let’s see how it goes, but Tyler took some heavy shots in that last fight, and I’m peaking right now. Not an injury to my name, I had two great back-to-back camps, I had some great sparring partners, I feel on top of the world, and it’s gonna be a rough night for Tyler. I really do believe that.”