Former Bellator star Pedro Carvalho worked in intense heat at a factory in his native Portugal in order to kickstart his fighting career. Now, he stands to become world featherweight champion and win the PFL’s $1million featherweight tournament.
Carvalho, a student of John Kavanagh’s famed Straight Blast Gym in Dublin, started out on the European scene as one of Portugal’s few bright talents. He struggled to a 5-3 record before making his way to Ireland with money saved from his day job to find elite training under the legendary coach.
Within about a year, he had made his way to Bellator; beating BAMMA champion Daniel Crawford in a major upset that would set him on a path to the upper reaches of the promotion’s rankings. And after the American outfit’s purchase by PFL in a merger that makes them the co-leader in MMA, Carvalho is heading into the league season, where he stands to make an eye-watering, life-changing sum.
$1million prize isn’t the motivation for SBG Ireland’s Pedro Carvalho
Speaking with Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat ahead of his opening round matchup with Brendan Loughnane tomorrow night, Carvalho insisted that it isn’t the money that keeps him going ahead of big fights.
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Instead, he says, it is world championship glory that fuels his fire. “To be honest, I think more about the belt.” he explained. “Because I want the focus to be on the belt where if I focus on being the best fighter in the world, I will win a million.
“But if my focus becomes the million then I might lose myself midway and I have experience in that regard.”
Pedro Carvalho has returned to the summit following Bellator setbacks
The experience Carvalho refers to is the 2020 Bellator Grand Prix, where he faced the iconic Patricio Pitbull in the early rounds. Had he won that ‘loser-goes-home’ tournament, he would have beaten a legend of the sport and earned himself a $1million cash prize on top of it.
“I fought for a million before and I was young,” he recalled. “I let myself shine with the bright lights and the cameras and all the attention. But all of that made me be the fighter that I think I had to be right now to become world champion in this season format.
“I just know right now after all of these learning processes that I’ve been through, I like to call losses learnings. It’s like my coach John Kavanagh says you either ‘win or learn’ [the title of his best-selling book].
“I won’t lie, it’s been tough because my last fight was a hard pill to swallow after everything went perfect. I had the best camp, the weight cut was so easy, I have nothing to say about my camp, my camp was perfect. Then in one second, a split second, an uppercut came in and that’s it. That’s MMA.
PFL format explained as fighters battle it out for $1million prize
The Professional Fighters’ League pits athletes against each other in an unprecedented tournament format which seeks to use meritocracy to prove who is the top fighter in each division. At first, they enter a pool stage similar to the Champions League in football, before heading to semi-finals and a final.
Each regular season fighters compete in two fights over three-rounds. A fighter earns three points for a win, and can then earn up to three bonus points for a finish; earning an extra point for each round they avoid by ending the fight early.
It guarantees athletes an intensive year of regular competition, and seeks to prove legitimately who is the best fighter in each division by having them all face each other at different points. Carvalho faces a stern test in his debut for the organisation taking on 2022 champion Brendan Loughnane, who suffered his first defeat in six last year when he was knocked out by Jesus Pinedo.
Pedro Carvalho had sights set on Brendan Loughnane from the beginning of PFL tenure
And the Portugese striker insists that he was keen to prove himself against arguably the toughest test in the division early. “I remember I had two names in my head that my focus was on,” he added. “I so badly wanted to face them.
“One of them was Brendan and when John came to me and said ‘hey we have Brendan Loughnane,’ I was like ‘deadly, this was meant to be’. It was just meant to be. I don’t know, man, when I have a selection of fighters in front of me I can never just look at the guy I think I can beat.
“I always look at the guys who are either the hardest challenge or who everybody says ‘oh, this is the guy’. I’ve always been like that in everything, ‘oh that’s him, okay let’s see then’. Stylistically it’s the type of matchup that excites me because I know that I’m going to have a scrap with him.”
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