Joji Goto beat former Bellator champion Sergio Pettis by unanimous decision Saturday at PFL Dubai. The bantamweight fight went three rounds at Coca-Cola Arena, and all three judges turned in the same card: 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. That’s nine rounds out of nine for the Japanese fighter. Pettis didn’t bank a single frame anywhere on the scorecards, which is a strange thing to see happen to a guy who was supposed to be the one controlling this fight.
The promotion didn’t dress it up much. PFL posted on X that Goto got “the dominant win against Sergio Pettis,” and MMA Fighting’s recap grouped his night with Oleg Popov’s as one of the dominant decision performances on the main card. The Japanese results account @FightsMemory listed Pettis as the No. 4-ranked fighter Goto had just beaten, and it noted the bout was the 10th fight of the night.
Japan stayed up for this one
The fight aired in Japan on U-NEXT. The main card started around 3 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 15, and RIZIN and U-NEXT revived their Ura Talk CH (裏トークCH) side-commentary show for one night only to run a Goto support broadcast alongside it. RIZIN’s panel included Takaki Soya and Koji Takeda, and both of them went to X once the decision was read.
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Soya wrote that Goto put on a great fight, and he thanked everyone who had watched the side broadcast through the middle of the night. Takeda’s reaction was the best one of the bunch. He posted that the win left him with inspiration and jealousy (感動とジェラシー), and then he congratulated Goto. That’s an honest thing for a fighter to admit in public, and it’s probably what half the Japanese roster was feeling at 4 a.m.
Strasser Kiichi called Goto seriously strong and described the result as a complete win over Pettis. Ayaka Miura posted “Congratulations!!👑” and tagged Goto, and Kenji Osawa chimed in with his own congratulations once the result came through.
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The rest of the card
Goto had company in the upset department. In the main event, Sergei Bilostenniy (16-4) took the PFL heavyweight title from Vadim Nemkov (20-3) by unanimous decision with scores of 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47. Yahoo Sports noted that Nemkov went in as the heavy favorite. Patrick Habirora (10-0) choked out Omar El Dafrawy at 3:11 of Round 1 in the co-main, then called for a shot at welterweight champ Thad Jean.
None of the sources say what comes next for Goto or Pettis, and PFL hasn’t announced anything for either man.
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Sal’s take: I don’t have a closing line in front of me, so I won’t make one up. A clean 30-27 sweep against a ranked former Bellator champ does tell you something, though. Nobody got robbed here, and nobody was handed a gift on a coin-flip round. Goto took every round on every card. Bookmakers should price his next opponent based on that sweep. If they price it off his name recognition instead, whoever’s on the other side of the fight is getting a gift.
