Louis Taylor announces withdrawal from 2019 PFL season

Louis Taylor will not be pursuing a second PFL tournament win.

The league’s 2018 middleweight winner announced Wednesday that he is withdrawing from the upcoming 2019 season. With no 185-pound tournament this season, Taylor was set to drop down to the 170-pound division, but he broke the news on Wednesday that this will not be the case.

Taylor, 39, did not elaborate on the reason for his withdrawal, only writing, “Life throws curve balls and I will not be competing this season.” Last year, Taylor went 5-0-1 inside the PFL cage and won a $1,000,000 prize by defeating Abusupiyan Magomedov by 33-second KO in the middleweight tournament finals.

He was scheduled to fight in the main event of the PFL’s 2019 season premiere card on May 9 in Long Island, New York, against Chris Curtis, but the league confirmed via press release that Curtis will now fight Portuguese Bellator veteran Andre Fialho on the preliminary portion of the show.

ESPN reported NYSAC wouldn’t clear Taylor for the season.