After a two-year absence due to multiple knee surgeries, former Professional Fighters League light heavyweight champion Antonio Carlos Jr. made a successful return to the cage in April, defeating Simon Bjorn by submission in the first round at PFL 2 on April 12.
The win earned “Cara de Sapato” six points in the PFL standings, but four other light heavyweights finished ahead of the Brazilian in the event, meaning Carlos Jr. will go into his PFL5 bout against Alex Polizzi in fifth place and will need to put in another impressive performance to ensure he makes it into the postseason.
“We’ve never seen anything like this in the history of the PFL. Five fighters have scored six points in the first phase. Nobody is guaranteed. [a spot] “In the playoffs, it’s like we’re all starting right now,” Carlos Jr. told Sherdog.com.
Carlos Jr. expects Polizzi to try to use his wrestling skills to control the bout at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
“He has good fork wrestling technique and he’ll probably try to take me down, but I feel more comfortable in that position,” said Carlos Jr., who revealed that he and American Top Team training partner Joshua Silveira arrived a week early in Utah to acclimate to the altitude.
Carlos Jr. knows he could face Silveira in the postseason if things go as planned for both ATT-based light heavyweight fighters, and the UFC veteran is preparing for that possibility.
“Obviously, the best case scenario would be to face Joshua in the finals and fight for $1 million within American Top Team,” said Carlos Jr. “But right now, we’re both in a really tough spot, so I’m not really thinking about that.”
Carlos Jr. had high praise for another training partner, Ikram Aliskerov, who will face Robert Whittaker on short notice in the main event of UFC on ABC 6 in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
“We have the same manager, Ali [Abdelaziz]”From our first sparring session, I told Ali that the Russian was a future champion,” said Carlos Jr. “Ikram is strong everywhere. When I was at UFC, I always said Whittaker was the worst opponent for me. Even Adesanya would be a better fit for my game. But a fight between Whittaker and Ikram is hard to predict, but I’m sure Ikram will give him a hard time.”
