Renan Ferreira Reveals Ankle Injury Hindered Performance in Loss at PFL 5

After a 25-second knockout of Jamelle Jones in his first fight of the 2022 PFL season, Renan Ferreira was confident of another impressive showing against Klidson Abreu in his second outing on June 24.

A finish would have guaranteed “Problema” a top seed in the heavyweight playoffs, but an ankle injury suffered in sparring during the last week of camp hindered Ferreira enough that he lost a unanimous decision to Abreu.

“I had a [300-pound] sparring partner fall over my ankle. On the first kick Klidson landed I felt a strong pain, and that prevented me from imposing my game,” Ferreira told Sherdog.com.

Despite the loss, Ferreira secured a spot in the PFL postseason, where he is scheduled to square off against Ante Delija in one semifinal matchup. Ferreira had the injury checked out as soon as he returned to Rio de Janeiro.

“Thank´s God it was just a sprain and I was able to recover in time,” he said. “In one more week I´ll be training 100%.”

Now Ferreira is expecting a difficult matchup against Delija.

“As a ‘Cro Cop’ pupil, Ante has a good striking technique and also good cage work, so we will have to work on some nice tactics to neutralize that and reach the final,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira also offered his thoughts on the other heavyweight semifinal between Denis Goltsov and defending champ Bruno Cappelozza.

“It´s gonna be a great fight,” Ferreira said. “Capelozza is more aggressive, always walking forward, while Goltsov is more strategic and will probably try to neutralize him by taking Bruno down. But I think Bruno will impose his game and win, so we will have a Brazilian final.”