By The Professional Fight League descended into farce last week as Natan Schulte and Raush Manfio engaged in a lackluster bout which saw Schulte, the godfather to Manfio’s daughter, earn a unanimous decision and a place in the promotion’s semifinal playoffs, of which he was later stripped for the truly reprehensible behavior on display by these two men in single-handedly manufacturing such a terrible situation.
“After reviewing the fight, we have made the decision to suspend both fighters and hand Natan Schulte’s playoff spot to Shane Burgos,” the PFL said in a statement about the fight. “When we made the decision to book two best friends to fight each other instead of matching them against any of the other fighters in the division for which there was no personal conflict there was simply no way to anticipate it might not result in a crowd-pleasing brawl.
“As an organization that prides itself on treating fighters right, we have taken the appropriate steps to ensure neither a playoff spot for Mr. Schulte nor the ability to fight on an undercard and earn more money for Mr. Manfio. Perhaps he will think about this and learn an important lesson for the next time someone asks him to fight the man whose financial assistance kept a roof over his head and the heads of his family.”
