Alex Martinez wins a contentious split decision to go to the playoffs over Clay Collard
Alex Martinez beat Clay Collard in the main event of PFL 4, which put Martinez in the playoffs and ended Collard’s PFL career in 2022.
Alex Martinez will get a chance to defend his PFL lightweight title after beating Clay Collard in a shocking, but controversial, decision at PFL 4.
As a consequence of his victory, Martinez is guaranteed a berth in the lightweight section of the 2022 PFL playoffs as a consequence of his win, while Collard’s season is gone.
How Martinez does in the playoffs will depend on how Anthony Pettis and Stevie Ray do in their PFL 5 match next week.
With a win over Clay Collard at PFL 4, Alex Martinez advances to the PFL playoffs
To hold him at bay, Martinez made Collard absorb a hard punch. Collard sought to get off to a fast start with good combinations.
Collard used multiple boxing combinations to go at Martinez’s body, and it appeared that he was succeeding. Martinez got Collard down twice in the first round, but Martinez came out on top.
In the second round, Collard continued to work over the body, but Martinez came after him and pressed him for his grappling.
Martinez was knocked out by Collard with a straight in the first round, and despite Martinez’s scrambling several times, Collard pursued him.
Martinez escaped Collard’s attempt to lock in an armbar and locked into a dominant position. Martinez almost got Collard to give up when he put him in a rear-naked choke, but Collard was able to get out of it.
Collard appeared to be on his way back in the last frame, but an arm-triangle choke and a guillotine from Martinez got him into trouble once more. Because of his superior grappling, Martinez had a very successful round.
The fight was rated 29–28 by all three judges, with two of them awarding the fight to Martinez, giving him the split-decision victory.
