McGrillen and Maia Steal the Show at PFL Dublin Press Conference
Lewis McGrillen and Weslley Maia stole the show at Wednesday’s PFL Dublin press conference.
With four title fights on the card, and recognisable names with big pedigree littered throughout, it was a non-title fight that features on the prelims that captured everyone’s attention.
Dan Hardy opened the press conference and told the media to ‘Expect a lot of fireworks from this card. McGrillen and Maia can’t wait to get their hands on each other.’ He wasn’t wrong as the two would later get into a heated exchange as they faced off.
From the moment the two bantamweights sat down on the stage there was fireworks with both guys taking jibes at one another. Maia began by saying ‘I’ve been chasing this fight for like 2 years now, he didn’t want the fight!’
McGrillen replied in typical fashion, telling Maia that he has no problem fighting the Brazilian, and even exclaimed ‘I’ll fight you in front of your family!’
Maia almost threatened to make the conversation between the two respectful when he said that he respects McGrillen’s skills, but quickly shut down any chances of niceties by telling everyone ‘when we get locked in there, he won’t have the TikTok fans with him.’
Maia also mentioned his own knockout power, which McGrillen wasn’t too sure about, leading to McGrillen asking Maia ‘Who have you knocked out?’.
The pair got into a physical exchange at the face offs after the press conference and had to be separated by security.
I caught up with Manchester’s McGrillen after the scuffle to see what he had to say; ‘‘It’s what I expected. I’m winding him up, getting him hostile. I’ve been poking at him for ages.’
McGrillen had no hesitation when I asked him for a prediction, ‘I’m gonna steal the show. I’m gonna go in there and just merk him!’ End of the first round, he ain’t gonna get out of the first round!’
This fight promises to be box office, with both guys looking to steal the show. I spoke to Dan Hardy in the immediate aftermath of the press conference about the exchange between the two; ‘I knew the face off was going to be fiery, these guys have not liked each other for a long time. This animosity has been brewing and because of that, they’ve been waiting to get at each other all week. We had to have a lot of security there yesterday and today was no different. Friday is going to be fireworks!’
It was announced yesterday that PFL Dublin will be broadcast live on Virgin Media 2 on Friday night, so make sure you tune in from 5pm. You won’t want to miss this one!
