PFL welterweight Gleison Tibau appears to have taken a sizeable U-turn on his view of his controversial decision win over Rory MacDonald.
Tibau was awarded a split decision victory over “Red King” at PFL 5 last week. The judges’ scoring left all sections of the MMA community baffled, with most giving at least two rounds to the American, if not all three.
In the aftermath of the debatable result, the Brazilian spoke with the media and admitted the win “was a big surprise.”
But just days after the headlining fight, Gleison Tibau has backtracked on his initial comments. In an interview with MMA Fighting, the former UFC veteran stated that he doesn’t believe MacDonald did enough to be awarded the win.
“He’s a legend in Canada, an idol in Canada, and it’s normal that a country would have his back. But, watching the fight, I can’t give him the [win]. It wasn’t an easy fight, we know it was a tough one, but I was way more effective with my strikes, hunting him down. He was kind of running away a little bit. I think it couldn’t have been a different result.”
Tibau added that he was comfortable throughout the fight and suggested that MacDonald wanted the fight to end.
“I was very comfortable in the fight, and I saw I could have done more. I had the tools to do more. I pulled the brakes a little bit, I could have done more. It was a tough win, a difficult one, but we got it.
“He wouldn’t have handled the pressure If we were in a five-round fight. He already wanted the fight to be over. I felt that.”
Tibau’s latest comments certainly don’t run parallel with his previous admittance of his surprise when the result was announced. Perhaps he’s adding fuel to the controversy in order to hype up a potential rematch.
If the pair do run it back, the 37-year-old doesn’t believe that the fight would make it to a decision.
“Next time I’ll knock him out. I already know the path. I felt I could have knocked him out.”
Do you think Tibau would beat MacDonald in a rematch?