Sullivan Cauley was the underdog going into his PFL mild heavyweight match semifinal conflict with Phil Davis in June and gained the match to maintain his title hopes alive. He’ll face one-time PFL champion Antonio Carlos Junior Thursday evening in Hollywood, Fla., and the Brazilian gained’t overlook him.
“Cara de Sapato” beat Tom Lawlor, Emiliano Sordi and Marthin Hamlet to seize the 2021 PFL title, with the ultimate going down on the identical state he returns to this week for his second belt. Junior sees the 2025 roster being harder than ever, particularly with Cauley knocking out Alex Polizzi, the one man handy Junior a loss in 10 PFL appearances, in his quarterfinal bout.
Again in 2021, fast finishes throughout the “common season” counted when figuring out drafting semifinalists. PFL’s new format in 2025 is shifted in the direction of a extra conventional match fashion, and Junior mentioned it made it much less complicated however harder as a result of there’s no room for errors.
“There’s no likelihood I’ll underestimate him or anybody inside that cage,” Junior instructed MMA Preventing. “He’s confirmed all his potential, expertise and bodily atributes, techniques and method. I’m staying alert towards him, to be fairly trustworthy. He has heavy fingers, so you possibly can’t make errors. Phil Davis was fairly recognized for his historical past, he was within the UFC and was champion in Bellator, and I believed all that have would rely. It was a really shut battle, but it surely was simply as I anticipated.”
The Brazilian veteran, a The Final Fighter as a heavyweight with greater than a dozen appearances beneath the UFC banner, sees the trail to victory in mixing the martial arts somewhat than specializing in utilizing his adorned grappling.
“He has a little bit of all the pieces,” Junior mentioned of Cauley. “He has background in wrestling however has centered on placing after that. Regardless that his solely loss was through submission, a rear-naked choke — my specialty, even —, I do know for a truth he’s coming ready for that. He’s skilled in all areas of the battle so we’ve to combine all the pieces effectively to get out with an awesome victory.”
“I feel nobody desires to go to the bottom — it’s laborious to seek out somebody that wishes to go to the bottom with me as a result of they comprehend it’s my greatest weapon,” he continued. “However I’ve proven I can combine all the pieces fairly effectively. My final battle was towards a striker, for instance, and I managed to impose my placing as a result of I used to be mixing all the pieces effectively with my takedowns, photographs, feints and boxing.”
Junior trains with skilled heavyweights and lightweight heavyweights in American Prime Crew, not removed from PFL 10 venue Seminole Exhausting Rock Lodge & On line casino, and appears again at his latest journeys to Thailand and Brazil for particular muay Thai and boxing coaching as key to a attainable end on the ft.
“I haven’t had a knockout since TUF days,” mentioned Junior with amusing. His final knockouts got here throughout the actuality present in 2014, together with a 12-second end. “That may be superior, very particular, however we’re centered on profitable. Regardless of the way it comes, we’re working for that.”
