Manchester’s Brendan Loughnane returned to winning ways with victory over Pedro Carvalho at PFL 3 on Friday in Chicago.
Loughnane, 34, had not fought since his shock defeat by Jesus Pinedo in June.
A crunching right hand was the start of Carvalho’s downfall, before the referee stepped in to halt the contest after just 86 seconds.
The win marks Loughnane’s 29th victory of his career and gives him six points in his first fight of the Professional Fighters League’s (PFL) 2024 season.
Loughnane is a former PFL featherweight champion, winning the 2022 tournament and making history as the PFL’s first English champion.
But his dream of defending the title was taken away in 2023 as Peru’s Pinedo handed him his first knockout loss in 32 fights.
Loughnane took 10 months out to recover, only rediscovering his confidence in a sparring session with former UFC champion Conor McGregor.
And on Friday night, Loughnane showed no signs of uncertainty in the cage, engaging with Carvalho in the opening 10 seconds and landing a sharp right after catching a kick from his opponent.
Carvalho spent most of the fight trying to withstand pressure from Loughnane and was dropped by a short right hand.
Loughnane moved forward to finish the fight but struggled to land cleanly on a squirming Carvalho.
The Portuguese dived for Loughnane’s leg but referee Kevin MacDonald decided to stop the contest.
Carvalho, 28, slumped to his third defeat in a row.
While there was good news for Loughnane, it was a difficult night for Welshman Brett Johns.
The 32-year-old featherweight was beaten via unanimous decision by Russian Timur Khizriev, picking up the fourth loss of his 24-fight MMA career.
Khizriev, 28, remains unbeaten with 15 victories in a row, while Johns will need to pick himself up quickly for his next fight in the summer.
“Not the result we wanted for Brett Johns, but the man fought his heart out against an unbeaten talent and left it all on there,” John’s coach Richard Shore said afterwards.
“We are proud of him and 28 June we will go again.”
PFL’s season format means each fighter competes twice for points in two fights before moving on to the knockout stages and the finals at the end of the year.
The winner of each tournament wins $1m with the PFL world title.
