\u201cI probably just can\u2019t do it anymore\u201d<\/a> after looking at the finances of the sport. Not long after, Pedro announced he would make the transition to boxing. Matches kept getting cancelled until he finally made it to the ring to beat Taimoor Khan in a 10-round title bout nearly a year later, eventually leaving that sport as well.<\/p>\n\u201cThere was always just dramas going on behind the scenes,\u201d Pedro told MMA Fighting of his boxing experience. \u201cThere was a lot of trouble that sort of was out of my control. And I think getting back into promotion under these guys is been time that I wanted to do again. Lots of pull-outs\u2014some of them were from my injuries, some of them were from other people\u2014but it basically just showing that it wasn\u2019t aligning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pedro struggled to find the exact words to explain his decision behind returning to MMA, but thinks he still has enough \u201cshelf life\u201d in the sport, at 34 years of age, and PFL is where he would like to be until the end of his fighting career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t taken lightly,\u201d Pedro said about ending his MMA retirement. \u201cI tried to go out on my own to go on a venture that I believed in with boxing and sometimes shit just doesn\u2019t work out. That fell through and I was pretty much done with fighting, to be honest. Then my current management team came to me with the opportunity from PFL and it really just seemed to align with what I wanted to do in life and it gave me a new love for MMA. And I was able to go back and see the boys at CKB [City Kickboxing] and I really enjoyed my time back there. It brought back my love for MMA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being away from his wife and daughter was a big factor in his decision to leave MMA in 2024. Back to action before his daughter turns 5 later this year, Pedro wants to be present and healthy for her for decades to come, and that means not competing in a cage for much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a promise to my daughter that I wouldn\u2019t be an old man fighting and punching and I want to try and keep my brain,\u201d Pedro said. \u201cI\u2019ve been getting punched in the head for close to 30 years, so I want to be an old father for my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no such thing as a slow build up for Pedro in the UFC. He joined the promotion as a 4-0 talent and beat Khalil Rountree Jr. and Paul Craig in his first four months in the company, and faced the likes of Mauricio \u201cShogun\u201d Rua and Ovince Saint Preux before he even had 10 bouts under his belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there a better route that I could have taken? Yes, probably,\u201d Pedro said, \u201cBut also it could have been life-changing if it went the other way. Maybe if I didn\u2019t hurt my knee [and stayed out for nearly four years]. And also I made a lot of mistakes outside of the octagon in a lot of choices in life. Maybe I didn\u2019t take it seriously or maybe I wasn\u2019t as focused, but a lot has changed in my life since. I was a completely different person now than I was then. Unfortunately, I\u2019m still the same risk taker [laughs]. If you put a challenge in front of me I\u2019m going to take it. I believe in myself so much that it doesn\u2019t matter who you put in front of me. That can also be to my detriment, but I\u2019ll always go down fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
That trend continues in PFL, where Pedro faces off with Yagshimuradov in his promotional debut. Yagshimuradov won seven fights in a row between 2022 and 2024 in Bellator and PFL, beating Impa Kasanganay, Rob Wilkinson, and Rafael Carvalho before losing a PFL title bout to Corey Anderson in his most recent appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a testament to my whole fighting career,\u201d Pedro said of debuting against Yagshimuradov. \u201cMy first fight in the UFC was against Khalil Rountree on four-weeks notice. I\u2019ve never tried to take the easy route. I fought a top 10 opponent in boxing when I first joined boxing, in a 10-round title fight, so I\u2019ve never taken the easy rout for anything. I enjoy fighting. If you throw the baddest guy in front of me I\u2019m gonna fight him. Definitely could have been easier routes for this, but this also sets me up for positive. Like, high risk, high reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201chigh reward\u201d could be a championship fight, Pedro said, since Anderson has yet to book a title defense since claiming the inaugural belt in October of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it speaks for itself, man,\u201d Pedro said. \u201cThere\u2019s not many people in front of him. One thing that is definitely In my mind now is I wanna stay as active as possible over the next couple years, get in as many as I can. It\u2019s the same as wherever I go. You want to fight for the number one spot. Also, one of the main reasons I signed with PFL, coming to the end of my career as well, is what PFL is doing for mixed martial arts all over the world. Having these regional circuits and being able to have our routes to get onto the global stage is something I find really important because when I was coming up in MMA, there was no clear pathway of how to get onto the international stage. I think PFL is going a smart route about doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yagshimuradov has only been finished once in 18 fights over the past 10 years, a third-round TKO to Anderson in 2021, and Pedro thinks his style matches up nicely against a \u201cslow burner\u201d fighter like him.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, it looks like we\u2019re in similar spots in our careers,\u201d Pedro said. \u201cMaybe not fight wise, but in age wise and what this fight will mean. I think we\u2019re in very similar places. It\u2019s two old dogs having a crack and we\u2019re just coming to put on the show. I think my fight style shows that I\u2019m willing to finish it wherever it goes. I love finding out in the fight what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why I love MMA so much, even the difference in boxing to MMA, is it\u2019s the human chess. And having this ability to just go anywhere in the absolute chaos and still being calm in it is something that\u2019s really beautiful about MMA. I\u2019m not too worried where it goes. I\u2019ve trained for all of it and that\u2019s what I love about MMA. On the feet, on the ground, doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyson Pedro left his gloves in the octagon the last time he fought in the UFC back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,1863,8417,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-608231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-pfl","14":"tag-pfl-news","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}