Renan Ferreira stopped a Bellator clean sweep over PFL’s best fighters by beating Ryan Bader in the champion v champion event in Saudi Arabia.
Bellator were 5-0 ahead on a largely one-sided main card before heavyweight Ferreira’s crushing right hand floored his rival champion inside 21 seconds.
Ferreira’s win means he is likely to fight Francis Ngannou after his boxing match with Anthony Joshua next month.
“I am the real problem,” said Ferreira, before calling out Ngannou.
“I am the record breaker, the record setter. Francis, where you at? I’m waiting for you.”
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) were in danger of being steamrolled before the 6ft 8in Ferreira stepped in the cage to deliver Bader, 40, his first defeat at heavyweight.
The event, the first major MMA show in Saudi Arabia, was billed as the PFL’s biggest ever and a giant step forward for an MMA world often entrenched in tribalism, with promotions firing shots at each other from afar, rather than in the cage.
With Saudi Arabia’s vast wealth sweeping aside long-standing rivalries in boxing, PFL is clearly hopeful the same can be done in MMA, with the UFC set to hold their first event there in June.
But as progress was made in the cage, a few metres from the action stood a reminder of the barriers in place for true promotional co-operation.
Ngannou was joined by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones at cageside.
Jones, 36, even appeared on the broadcast and the PFL used the opportunity to talk up a potential match-up with Ngannou.
Ngannou will make his PFL debut this summer, but UFC president Dana White has always scoffed at the idea of cross-promotional events in any form.
While this was billed as two promotions coming together, PFL bought Bellator in November and now owns all its assets, including the fighters and their contracts.
Jones, who is expected to fight Stipe Miocic on his return from injury later this year, expertly side-stepped the elephant in the room, stopping short of calling out Ngannou directly or mentioning his employers.
“There’s a lot of fights that the world want right now,” Jones said.
“Francis and I would be massive. And Stipe, to the hardcore fans, it’s still a respectable opponent.
“My prediction is I will beat Stipe, my prediction is I will beat Tom Aspinall and Francis Ngannou.
“The way it unfolds is really not my business. My job is to do what I’ve always done, since day one.”
