Bryan Battle Says Divorce and UFC Exit Undermined His PFL Debut

He says new coaches at the MMA Lab give him a chance to prove that he has retooled in the Aug. 7 main event in Charlotte.

Overview

Battle told Ariel Helwani that a divorce and being cut from the UFC left him mentally divided and kept him from giving full focus to training for his PFL debut.
He lost his PFL debut to Johnny Eblen by first-round submission after being controlled on the ground, a March bout that Battle now calls a wake-up call.
Battle says he has spent recent months training at the MMA Lab and working with coaches including Coach Crouch, Benson Henderson and Razor Rob to fix preparation gaps.
He is scheduled to headline PFL Charlotte on Aug. 7 at Bojangles Coliseum against Dalton Rosta, a fight he frames as a concrete chance to demonstrate improvement.
Battle rose to the UFC by winning The Ultimate Fighter 29 but was cut last year after repeated weight misses, and he sees the Charlotte bout as a step to rebuild his career standing.