‘The Reaper’ tested skills with Edukondal Rao at the massive PFL vs Bellator card. Rao is an amateur kickboxing champion who has also collected multiple submission finishes as a mixed martial artist.
The featherweight fighter showcased a well-rounded skillset throughout the bout early on after scoring a first-round body lock takedown. Al-Qahtani also let his clean boxing fundamentals shine through with some strong one-twos worked in throughout. He also overcame adversities after Rao dropped Al-Qahtani with strikes but illustrated a lot of heart in securing another takedown amid this hectic sequence.
Rao’s fatigue became more evident in the second stanza and the tides turned most noticeably in this round in Abdullah Al-Qahtani‘s favour. The grappling both in terms of the wall work and implementing his top control after taking things to the mat also greatly behooved the combative approach of Al-Qahtnai. It seemed like a striking-based finish was near during this second frame but the end came not all too long after that.
Abdullah Al-Qahtani
The finish came at the twenty-three-second mark of the third round via a standing TKO in favor of Al-Qahtani. This extends his winning streak to three straight and Al-Qahtani is now 3-0 specifically under the Professional Fighters League banner.
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Addressing multiple considerations during his post-fight interview, Al-Qahtani said,
“Look, yeah I want to stop him in the first round but I go with the plan with my coach, with my team, and yeha, you see what happen… You know, I’m so happy here. I feel all these people is with me. Like we fight like one man army… Yeah, what’s next for me may be; it’s a surprise today. They’re going to say something here. Yeah I mean, soon I’ll be back in the cage and make something crazy like today.”
Abdullah Al-Qahtani checks in with Dan Hardy following his hometown win and improving to 3-0 inside the SmartCage!#PFLvsBellator LIVE NOW
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