PFL fighter Sadibou Sy has described his playoff fight with Carlos Leal ahead of PFL 9, which sees four semi-final matchups take place.
The Swede faces Leal with a spot in the 2023 PFL welterweight finals up for grabs, with the winner facing Magomed Magomedkerimov or Solomon Renfro in New York City later this year.
This will be the second meeting between the pair after Sy defeated the Brazilian by unanimous decision at this point of the tournament last year. He discussed the matchup in an interview with Combat Sports UK.
He said: “First and foremost, he has to deal with me being taller, I believe stronger, and the faster fighter – definitely more technical and creative.
“So, he needs to try to make it a dogfight. But, doing so he’s gonna put himself at risk and I believe that’s something he’s willing to do because that’s his only way of winning the fight.
“I don’t know if it’s gonna be a long fight or a short fight but it will all depend on how tough he actually is because he’s gonna be there to be hit, and I believe that with how I’ve progressed, this is gonna be a tough one for him.”
The 36-year-old went on to describe his excitement for the bout.
He continued: “For me, the next fight is always the most important fight. When I speak about next year, the super fight [division], nothing of that matters if I don’t take care of business for the next fight.
0So, all my attention is on that one, everything. I don’t take anything lightly and I’m always excited because I’m so thankful.
“The opportunity is right now! The opportunity is right in front of me, right now, so I’m not gonna make that go to waste.”
Sy Details the Vision Problems He Has Had Since Youth
The 2022 PFL welterweight champion was diagnosed with an eye problem as a teenager, a condition called chronic eye inflammation.
Eye injuries have occurred with MMA fighters previously, most notably Michael Bisping. However, Sy’s actually came about before his venture into martial arts even began. In his own words, he claimed that he couldn’t allow himself “to use it as an excuse.”
The Xtreme Couture fighter went into detail on his condition further.
He said: “To be honest, that’s the thing, it didn’t [affect my martial arts career]. So, I played soccer until I was 13/14 years old and this problem with my vision started to come when I was in my early teens. It affected me because I went from having full vision to starting to have trouble with seeing the ball and whatever, I had a point of reference.
“When I started with martial arts, or kickboxing to begin with, I already had this issue, so for me, that’s what I knew. I couldn’t allow myself to use it as an excuse because when I started with kickboxing, that’s exactly how I started.
“But, at the same time, I said ‘One day, I’m gonna get my vision back and that’s when my opponents should watch out. 2017, I went from 20-40% of vision depending on the day, to now – maybe 80%, 90% some days.”
Sadibou Sy Full Exclusive Interview
You can watch the full interview with Sadibou Sy below:
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Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
