Former World Series of Fighting featherweight champion Alexandre de Almeida made quick work of Lee Coville on Thursday night at PFL 1.
The -1100 favorite scored some hard strikes on the inside. When the fight went to the ground, de Almeida snatched up a quick armbar to force the tap from Coville just 1:22 in.
He improved to 1-0 and earned six points in the PFL featherweight regular season standings; three for the win and three for the first-round submission. That guarantees he’ll be tied for first place at the end of the night. De Almeida said the fight went as he thought it would.
“Everything happened the way we planned in training camp,” de Almeida told MMASucka. “I’m really happy to already have six points for the Grand Prix.”
Trilogy Fight
The Brazilian said he doesn’t care who he faces next. However, he has his eye on Lance Palmer, another former WSOF champion.
The two are 1-1. De Almeida captured Palmer’s featherweight title at WSOF 26 in December 2015 with a unanimous decision. However, Palmer got his revenge in their next fight at WSOF 32 in July 2016. De Almeida says he wants to fight Palmer under the PFL banner…but not just yet.
“I think if we fight again, it should be in the finals,” he said.
De Almeida added that he believes he and Palmer are the two best men in the featherweight tournament.
Palmer defeated Bekbulat Magomedov via second-round submission in the co-main event. Andre Harrison, another former champion who holds a win over Palmer, climbed to 18-0 with a dominant unanimous decision win over Tuerxun Jumabieke and is the favorite to win the tournament. Harrison and de Almeida have yet to fight one another.
PFL 2018 #1: Regular Season took place on Thursday, June 7 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater. The event featured the first round of the heavyweight and featherweight matchups.
