PFL 2022 Awards | Surprise of the Year | Dilano Taylor

The PFL’s tournament format leaves a lot of room for some big surprises to emerge and cause some shock turns on the way to the finals. For the 2022 season, one particular competitor ended the tournament at late notice after serving as an alternate for several match-ups. With a huge performance in the semi-finals, Dilano Taylor earned himself a spot in the finals by capitalising on his opportunity. 

In the lead-up to the semi-finals at PFL 8, Dilano ‘The Postman’ Taylor went 2-1 inside the PFL smart cage. In his first two fights of the year, Taylor picked up wins against Mark Martin and João Zeferino to put himself in a great position. As the regular season kicked-off, he had shown that he could step in as an alternate if needed by proving himself in the PFL. 

It appeared that his hard work had paid off and he would get the opportunity he had been looking for at PFL 6 but he would have to wait a bit longer. Coming up short against Magomed Magomedkerimov, it seemed that Taylor would have to wait until 2023 to make his impact on the season. 

That all changed in the lead-up to the PFL’s debut on UK soil. With the welterweight semi-finals taking centre stage in Cardiff, Wales, the main event of the evening was scheduled to be Rory ‘The Red King’ MacDonald taking on the undefeated Magomed Umalatov. Once the promotion was made aware that Umalatov would not be able to compete, ‘The Postman’ got the phone call that gave him an opportunity to shake up the entire tournament.

Stepping into the main event slot to face a former world champion in MacDonald didn’t faze Taylor one bit, this is what he had been waiting for. With a first round knockout over the tournament’s number one seed, Dilano booked his place in the finals, giving him the opportunity to win a million dollars after not being in the competition until the semi-final round. 

Though he came up short in the finals against Sweden’s Sadibou Sy, Dilano Taylor showed how the PFL format can work in a fighters favour if they’re ready to capitalise on an opportunity once it presents itself. His knockout of Rory MacDonald was one of the highlights of the season that no one could have seen coming after the fight came together on short notice.