HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – On Friday’s main card of 2021 PFL Playoffs 1, Clay Collard faced Raush Manfio in what turned out to be an intense 15-minute back-and-forth battle.
The three decision-makers sitting cageside are either be your best friend or your worst enemy after a close fight. Unfortunately for Collard, the judges’ scorecards were not in his favor, despite the commentary team, and of course, Collard himself, believing otherwise.
“I mean, what do you want me to say? That sh*t sucks,” Collard told MMA Junkie shortly after the conclusion of the fight. “I definitely got the first two rounds. Third round, he might have squeaked by.”
Collard knew the fight was close, but didn’t think that he was behind on the scorecards. The judges scored the contest unanimously in favor of Manfio, all turning in scores of 29-28, although they did not score all of the rounds the same way. The only round all three judges agreed on was the final round, scoring it 10-9 for Manfio.
“I felt like I was trying to mix things up, I went for a few takedowns, I was even going for a few submissions like that, and he was just throwing slappy shots the whole time,” Collard said. “I feel like I did enough to win the fight, you know? The judges didn’t think that and he gets to go fight for a million dollars, so good for him.”
Manfio extends his win streak to three in a row and advances to the lightweight finals where he will face Loik Radzhabov.
Collard’s run towards the 2021 PFL final comes up one fight short but still had an impressive run with wins over former UFC champion Anthony Pettis and Joilton Lutterbach during the regular season.
Watch the full interview with Collard in the video above.
