After a steady start to his welterweight matchup with Roberts, Habirora saw an opening, and landed a perfectly-timed head kick to send Roberts crashing to the mat. Two big follow-up hammerfists put the exclamation point on a great performance as referee Rich Mitchell stepped in to wave the bout off with 28 seconds remaining in the opening round.
It gave Habirora a highlight-reel first-round finish against a respected opponent, at a higher weight class, and proved that he’s ready to share the PFL SmartCage with some of the PFL’s higher-calibre lightweights.
The co-main event saw French bantamweight Taylor Lapilus outwork PFL MENA champion Ali Taleb for a shutout victory on the scorecards, while elsewhere at 135 pounds, the PFL Europe bantamweight tournament got underway, with Dean Garnett, Mahio Campanella, Catalin Safta and Gustavo Oliveira progressing to the semi-finals. The latter’s victory, via a stunning spinning back elbow knockout, was one of the moments of the night.
The night also saw Manchester featherweight Ibragim Ibragimov extend his perfect professional record to 10-0 with victory over Mathys Duragrin, while his Belgian namesake Movsar Ibragimov rebounded from a tough opening round to submit Gerardo Fanny in the second round of their bantamweight showcase bout.
PFL Europe
PFL Europe Brussels: Official weigh-in results
- Patrick Habirora def. Danny Roberts via TKO (head kick and punches) – Round 1, 4:32
- Taylor Lapilus def. Ali Taleb via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Gaetano Pirrello def. Salvatore Liga via submission (D’Arce choke) – Round 1, 3:22
- Boris Mbarga Atangana def. Bruno Santos via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:56
- Chequina Noso Pestro def. Khamzat Abaev via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Movsar Ibragimov def. Gerardo Fanny via submission (Von Flue choke) – Round 2, 1:42
- Ibragim Ibragimov def. Mathys Duragrin via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Dean Garnett def. Toumas Gronvall via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) – bantamweight quarter-final
- Mahio Campanella def. Matiss Zaharovs via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) – bantamweight quarter-final
- Catalin Safta def. Nicolas Di Franco via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28) – bantamweight quarter-final
- Gustavo Oliveira def. Anas Azizoun via knockout (spinning back elbow) – Round 1, 3:25 – bantamweight quarter-final
- Jan Clepowski def. Julien Lopez via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:43
- Paulina Wisniewska def. Jessica Cunha via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 4:12
- Adam Meskini def. Tiziano Ferranti via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:56
- Levi Batchelor def. Fahdi Khaled via technical submission (Ezekiel choke) – Round 3, 4:34
- Salvo Giudice def. Brice Belghazi via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3. 2:14
