{"id":90820,"date":"2026-05-24T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90820\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:12:10","slug":"unbeaten-patrick-habirora-squashes-benson-henderson-in-pfl-brussels-headliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/90820\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbeaten Patrick Habirora squashes Benson Henderson in PFL Brussels headliner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick
\nHabirora<\/a> showed no respect to one of his most accomplished
\nelders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Belgian Bomber\u201d stepped up his ascent in the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> and blew away onetime Ultimate
\nFighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder
\nBenson
\nHenderson<\/a> with punches in the first round of their
\nPFL Brussels<\/a> welterweight main event on Saturday at ING Arena
\nin Belgium.
\nHenderson (30-13, 0-1 PFL) met his end just 20 seconds into Round
\n1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Habirora (9-0, 5-0 PFL) intercepted the MMA Lab cornerstone with a
\nleft hook and backed it up with a right hook that sent the John
\nCrouch prot\u00e9g\u00e9 into a nosedive. Prone and badly hurt, the
\n42-year-old Henderson ate a series of right hands before referee
\nMike Beltran could arrive on the scene to rescue him.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Ares Fighting Championship and TKO Major League
\nMMA titleholder Taylor
\nLapilus<\/a> cruised to a clear-cut unanimous decision over Dana
\nWhite\u2019s Contender Series alum Jake Hadley<\/a>
\nin their three-round bantamweight co-headliner. All three cageside
\njudges turned in 30-27 scorecards for Lapilus.<\/p>\n

\nNothing the game but outmatched Hadley tried worked. Lapilus (25-4,
\n4-0 PFL) battered the Englishman with sharp jabs, occasional
\nmulti-punch bursts and a few low kicks, all while refusing every
\none of his attempted takedowns. Hadley (12-6, 1-2 PFL) gave into
\nfrustration and retreated to the butt scoot position more than once
\nout of desperation, at which point the Frenchman snaked away into
\nopen space, hammered him with standing leg kicks and prompted
\nrestarts from the referee.<\/p>\n

Lapilus, 34, now finds himself on a six-fight winning streak.<\/p>\n

Further down the main draw, burgeoning Team Sendo star Boris
\nMbarga Atangana<\/a> kept his perfect professional record intact and
\nwasted little time in doing so, as he swept aside Jared
\nGooden<\/a> with punches in the first round of their middleweight
\nshowcase.
\nGooden (23-12, 0-1 PFL) succumbed to blows 65 seconds into Round
\n1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atangana (9-0, 4-0 PFL) dazed the American with a head kick, pushed
\nhim to the fence and let fly with power punches from both hands.
\nBleeding from a cut underneath his right eye, Gooden tried to cover
\nup along the cage but ate a vicious left hook and finally wilted on
\nthe end of three unabated right hands over the top from the
\nundefeated Belgian.<\/p>\n

All nine of Atangana\u2019s victories have resulted in finishes, seven
\nof them inside one round.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, ex-Rizin Fighting Federation champion Naoki Inoue<\/a>
\ncalled upon smooth lateral movement, his trusted jab and a late
\nsurge to secure a split decision over Chute Boxe\u2019s Marcirley
\nAlves<\/a> in their closely contested three-round bantamweight
\nattraction. Scores were 29-28 and 29-28 for Inoue, 30-27 for the
\nJoao Emilio-trained Alves.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Inoue (21-5, 1-0 PFL) steered clear of danger for
\nmuch of the first round but encountered significant turbulence in
\nthe second. Alves (15-5, 3-1 PFL) bloodied his nose with jabs and
\nscrambled his signal with a clubbing right hand over the top. Inoue
\nleaned into his guile and experience, managed to recover and found
\nthe means with which to respond in Round 3. There, he attacked the
\nlegs and body with kicks, cut loose with one-twos and dropped Alves
\nwith a sneaky left hook at the end of an exchange. The Brazilian
\nwithstood the brief onslaught that followed, hit the reset button
\nand returned fire, only to fall short on two of the three
\nscorecards.<\/p>\n

Inoue has won five of his past six bouts.<\/p>\n

Finally, SBG Ireland\u2019s Asael
\nAdjoudj<\/a> cut down former Shooto champion Keisuke
\nSasu<\/a> with a head kick and follow-up punches in the second round
\nof their featherweight appetizer.
\nSasu (14-5-1, 0-1 PFL) clocked out 2:22 into Round 2, suffering his
\nsecond knockout loss in as many appearances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adjoudj (11-1, 3-0 PFL) maximized his seven-inch height advantage,
\nblasted the Master Japan-trained judoka with kicks to all levels
\nand neutralized his takedowns with an efficient get-up game. Sasu
\nnever managed the range properly and paid a steep price midway
\nthrough the middle stanza. Adjoudj floored him with a devastating
\nhead kick, then pounced with hammerfists to ensure the job was
\ndone.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Adjoudj has rattled off 10 consecutive
\nvictories.<\/p>\n

In preliminary action, Gustavo
\nOliveira<\/a> (13-2, 3-0 PFL) dispatched Baris
\nAdiguzel<\/a> (10-2, 2-1 PFL) with
\na ninja choke 1:10 into the second round<\/a> of their
\nbantamweight confrontation; Khamzat
\nAbaev<\/a> (6-1, 1-1 PFL) put away Luca Poclit<\/a>
\n(10-3, 0-2 PFL) with
\npunches 2:56 into the first round<\/a> of their
\nwelterweight clash; Adam
\nMeskini<\/a> (11-3, 3-1 PFL) eked out a split decision\u201429-28, 28-29,
\n29-28\u2014over Keweny
\nLopes<\/a> (12-5-1, 0-2 PFL) in their three-round featherweight
\naffair; Movsar
\nIbragimov<\/a> (8-1, 2-1 PFL) dismissed Shane
\nCampbell<\/a> (5-5, 0-0 PFL) with
\na rear-naked choke 3:28 into the first round<\/a> of their
\nfeatherweight encounter; Ashley
\nReece<\/a> (10-3, 1-0 PFL) took a unanimous decision\u201429-28, 29-28,
\n29-28\u2014from Rustam
\nSerbiev<\/a> (9-6, 0-1 PFL) in their three-round welterweight tilt;
\nand Donegi
\nAbena<\/a> (1-0, 1-0 PFL) was awarded a technical knockout over
\nJoe
\nSchilling<\/a> (4-7, 0-1 PFL) when the volatile American kickboxer
\nrefused to continue the fight after being fouled by a head butt 36
\nseconds into the first round of their light heavyweight pairing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Habirora showed no respect to one of his most accomplished elders. \u201cThe Belgian Bomber\u201d stepped up his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[478,211,210,38,18656],"class_list":["post-90820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-article","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-news","tag-professional-fighters-league"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116626898673141030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}