Editor's note: This story was initially published in October, ahead of the PFL quarterfinals. It has been updated to reflect Emiliano Sordi earning a berth into the 2019 PFL light heavyweight finals.
Emiliano Sordi left the cage in October 2018 completely devoid of emotion. A loss to Bozigit Ataev eliminated Sordi from the PFL light heavyweight playoffs. He was mostly indifferent after what should have been a crushing defeat.
When Sordi got backstage at Long Beach Arena, he told his coach, Eric Del Fierro: "Man, I knew I wasn't mentally right going into it."
Sordi got a rematch with Ataev in August, as part of the PFL's 2019 regular season. Right before he walked out, Sordi told Del Fierro he was exactly where he needed to be mentally.
"He went out there and showed it," Del Fierro said.
In the first fight, Ataev beat Sordi by first-round TKO. In the rematch, Sordi got revenge with his own TKO at 1:23 of the first round. The victory earned Sordi the top seed in the 2019 light heavyweight playoffs, and he never slowed down. Sordi and Ataev met for the third time in the 2019 PFL light heavyweight semifinals, and for the fourth time this season Sordi walked out of the cage with a finish.
POWERFUL KO 💥 @emilianosordi #PFL6 pic.twitter.com/3TGrrOUABY
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 9, 2019
Sordi is a new man -- in body and mind -- in 2019. Along with a more intense emphasis on strength and conditioning, Sordi started consulting with a mental coach over the past six months.
"The adjustments in my mindset have made a big difference," Sordi, an Argentina native, told ESPN through a translator. "The mental game has been a big part of my development."
The results are impressive. Sordi stopped 2018 light heavyweight runner-up Vinny Magalhaes in the second round with strikes in his first PFL regular-season fight of 2019, in June, and then finished Ataev. Then he tore through the playoffs, earning a first-round TKO against Sigi Pesaleli in just over a minute and a first-round submission over Ataev in October in Las Vegas.
Last year, Sordi was a +360 underdog in the PFL quarterfinals versus Ataev. Now, as Sordi enters the finals against UFC veteran Jordan Johnson, he is the favorite to win the entire season -- and the $1 million that comes along with it.
The best description of Sordi, 28, coming into this PFL season was "journeyman." He has been a pro MMA fighter since 2009, and nothing about his performances ever really stood out. Sordi went 1-2 in Bellator and was submitted in just 26 seconds by Ryan Spann on Dana White's Contender Series in June 2018.
As the years and the fights -- he has had 29 in total since turning pro -- piled up, Sordi said his career became somewhat mundane. As ridiculous as it might sound to those on the outside about a man who fights inside a cage for a living, Sordi was bored.
"It was like nothing," Sordi said. "It was like drinking a coffee with somebody. It wasn't a big deal to me."
Something clicked after last season's unspectacular finish. Sordi threw himself into a strength-and-conditioning program and sought out Ariel Sendral, his friend and mental coach from Argentina.
Sordi said he talks to Sendral daily while he is training at Alliance MMA in San Diego, setting aside time every day to meditate and think about his goals.
Sendral, Sordi said, helped him remember how serious -- and dangerous -- MMA can be. It's not a sport you can just meander your way through.
"The mental coach helped me reevaluate what I was doing and make it more serious for me, to recognize the risk of what I was doing and prepare differently," Sordi said. "... I didn't feel any fear for the sport or any risk in the sport. It wasn't the losses. I was just really robotic in my approach."
"I want to be recognized as the champion. The money is secondary." Emiliano Sordi
Sordi (19-8) started in combat sports at a young age. Kickboxing was more popular than MMA in Argentina, at least when he was coming up, and he had his first fight in that world at 16. Two years later, he made his pro MMA debut. Sordi is still on the right side of 30 and remains in his athletic prime, but he was clearly suffering from a case of burnout.
"Having a mental coach reinvigorated my focus and allowed me to apply my energy to the fights," Sordi said.
"He-Man" looked very much renewed in his 2019 PFL opener June 6 in Uniondale, New York. Magalhaes, his opponent that night, had lost to Sean O'Connell in the PFL light heavyweight final in 2018 and was the odds-on pick to win the title this year after O'Connell retired. Sordi battered Magalhaes on the feet from start until the stoppage at 2:45 of the second round, never allowing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace to get him to the ground in any dangerous positions.
Five points for @emilianosordi, who closes the show at @ProFightLeague with a standing TKO pic.twitter.com/RIrlmoxsgw
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 7, 2019
Against Ataev on Aug. 8 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Sordi landed a right cross-left hook combination and followed up with devastating punches on the ground to finish the fight in less than 90 seconds. Afterward, Sordi wore a bright smile on his face, raised his hands over his head, ran around the cage and jumped onto it in celebration.
He no longer looked like a man uninterested in his fighting career.
Few could have foreseen this renaissance, either. Sordi was a +400 underdog against Magalhaes and a +160 underdog against Ataev the second time around.
"I felt people were overlooking me, that I wasn't a big name," Sordi said. "I knew better than that. I knew I'm a force to be reckoned with."
PFL president Ray Sefo, a former fighter himself, has noticed the difference.
"Emiliano has always had the skills," he said, "but this year I thought he started to fight smarter. I knew he could fight, but he just had to be more intelligent in the way he pursued his fights." Del Fierro, who runs Alliance MMA, said in the past Sordi was what coaches call a "gym fighter." He looked like a world beater in sparring, but when the actual competition came around, he wasn't the same guy. That has changed. Del Fierro believes the difference is mostly Sordi's confidence in all the weapons he has. He isn't only a dynamic striker -- "a light heavyweight that moves like a lightweight," Del Fierro said -- but a strong grappler, as well.
"I get to see guys perform at the gym, and at the gym it's a lot easier to perform and you see their full talent," Del Fierro said. "Sometimes their full talent doesn't come up in competition. I think working with a mental coach and just being here has helped his confidence, and he's functioning.
"He's doing what he's supposed to be doing in there -- the same thing he's been doing in the gym."
Sordi's main sparring partner is former Bellator light heavyweight champion Phil Davis, who has long been one of the best in the world at 205 pounds. Sordi has been at Alliance since 2016. Del Fierro said he has seen what Sordi can do against Davis, and now that ability is manifesting itself in PFL.
"It's fun to watch," Del Fierro said of the sparring matches between Davis and Sordi. "That's about as much as I can tell you. It's two talented guys. They really go at it. It's fairly competitive."
Sordi's goal is now clear. He wants to win the $1 million light heavyweight season this year, then again in 2020. Eventually, he wants to move up to heavyweight and win the prize there, too.
No matter who stands in his way, Sordi is determined to see his new approach reach what he feels is the only logical conclusion.
"I want to be recognized as the champion," Sordi said. "The money is secondary."