Few fighters entered the inaugural\u00a0season of the Professional Fighters League (PFL) with better name recognition\u00a0than Lance Palmer.<\/p>\n
Palmer, a former Team Alpha Male fighter, has been a champion before. ‘The Party’ is a former two-time World Series of Fighting (WSOF) featherweight champion,\u00a0Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA)\u00a0145-pound king, and now the PFL season one champ is a million dollars richer.<\/p>\n
Still, Palmer isn’t\u00a0overjoyed like one might expect. A winner in every\u00a0sense of the word; Palmer has come to expect greatness from himself.<\/p>\n
“I’ve won belts before,” Palmer told BJPENN.com in a recent interview. “I’ve\u00a0won the belt for World Series of Fighting. Defended it, then won it again, so I was a two-time champ for WSOF.<\/p>\n
“Winning the PFL belt – that’s what I expected out of myself.\u00a0It is cool though. Its a great finish to the year and now we take a nice little break before season\u00a0two.”<\/p>\n
For Palmer, the PFL season format is a throwback to his Ohio State wrestling days. And that’s\u00a0a welcome change of pace for ‘The Party’.<\/p>\n
“I love the tournament format,” Palmer exclaimed. “Why would you want to sit around all year just so you can defend your belt at years end? I heard some people saying they\u00a0would rather have it be that way instead of a tournament. That makes zero sense what so ever.<\/p>\n
“I’d rather be able to go in and be able to fight all those times throughout the year, stay active and keep improving throughout the year. Also, get paid throughout the whole year.”<\/p>\n
Palmer was definitely\u00a0busy last year. He competed five times in 2018, all of which were wins. The year culminated with his New Year’s Eve win over Steven Siler for the featherweight title and the accompanying\u00a0million dollar payday.<\/p>\n
“I trained for a five-round battle,” explained Palmer. “I fought Siler last November, so I knew what to train for, I knew what to expect. And I also knew to expect a better version of him. He is at a new gym training with a new team, but I am as well, and I feel like I have improved so much this last year since I left Alpha Male.<\/p>\n
“I knew coming into this that no one\u00a0was going to stop me if I came in and brought my\u00a0best.”<\/p>\n