The Professional Fighters League official kicked off their 2019 playoffs on Friday, Oct 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
There will be three nights of fights for the PFL throughout the month of October, with different weight-classes fighting each night. On Friday, the men’s Welterweight division (170lbs) had their Quarterfinals and their Semifinals rounds and the women’s Lightweight division (155lbs) had their Semifinals round.
The night started off with two non-tournament fights. This first fight was a Featherweight (145lbs) matchup featuring Brendan Loughnane, who was making his PFL debut, and Matt Wagy. Loughnane was able to win the fight via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27). The second non-tournament fight was a Welterweight matchup between Jesse Ronson and Nikolay Aleksakhin, who was also making his PFL debut. Aleksakhin was able to get the win over Ronson via a first round knockout.
After the two non-tournament fights, it was officially time for the playoffs to begin. For the Quarterfinals, the fights will each be a maximum of two 5-minute rounds. In the Semifinals, there will be a maximum of three 5-minute rounds.
The men’s Welterweight division kicked off the playoff fights with a matchup between the #3 seed Sadibou Sy and the #6 seed Ray Cooper III. The crowd was electrifying when Cooper was introduced, as he is from Hawaii. A large portion of the arena seemed to be filled with people pulling for Cooper to win this fight. Sy was able to land 47% of his total strikes (24/51) and Cooper was able to land 62% of his total strike attempts (23/37). Both fighters were able to get a knockdown during the back and forth exchanges during the match. The fight ended in a majority draw, meaning that two of the three judges had draws on their scorecards and the third judge had Cooper winning 20-18. Cooper would advance to the Semifinals due to a tiebreaker after being chosen by the judges to advance.
The next Welterweight Quarterfinals matchup featured the #1 seed Glaico Franca against the #8 seed Andre Fialho. This fight was very close. Franca was able to land 36% of his total strikes (70/194), compared to Fialho landing 53/85 strike attempts, and completed 4 of his 6 takedown attempts. The fight would end in a Majority Decision win for Franca, which means he was the winner on two of the three judges scorecards (20-18, 20-18) and the third judge had the fight as a draw (19-19).
The third Welterweight Quarterfinals featured a matchup between the defending 2018 PFL Champion and #2 seed Magomed Magomedkerimov against the # 7 seed Chris Curtis. This was a rematch of a regular season matchup between the two fighters in which Magomedkerimov was able to get a win via unanimous decision. This fight would also end in a unanimous decision for Magomedkerimov. Following the fight, Curtis took his gloves off and left them in the center of the octagon. This usually signifies that the fighter is retiring. Curtis would later make a post on Facebook saying that he was done fighting and wanted to focus on his family. However, after it was released that Magomedkerimov was unable to continue fighting and was forced to withdraw from the playoffs, Curtis came out of his very short-lived retirement to advance to the Semifinals against Ray Cooper III.
The final Welterweight division Quarterfinals matchup featured the #4 seed John Howard and the #5 seed David Michaud. Michaud had control of the fight from start to finish. He was able to land 74% of his total strikes (103/139) compared to just 43% of total strikes (45/105) landed by Howard. Michaud was also able to complete all three of his takedown attempts, compared to Howard completing two of his four attempts. Michaud would go on to win the match via unanimous decision (20-18 by all three judges) and advanced to the Semifinals against Glaico Franca.
The Semifinals fights were set. The first fight would be between #6 Ray Cooper III and #7 Chris Curtis. The second fight would be between #1 Glaico Franca and #5 David Michaud. But first, it was time for the women’s Lightweight division Semifinals round. This is the first year that there will be a women’s division playoff bracket.
The first women’s Lightweight fight featured the #1 seed Sarah Kaufman against the #4 seed Larissa Pacheco. Kaufman came into this fight as the favorite to win the championship, however, Pacheco had different thoughts. She was able to land 36% of her total strikes (62/174) compared to Kaufman’s 32% of total strikes (63/198) landed. Pacheco was also able to complete four of her six takedown attempts. She would go on to get the upset and win the match via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) and advance to the women’s Lightweight Championship fight.
The second and final women’s Lightweight fight featured the #2 seed Kayla Harrison and the #5 seed Bobbi Jo Dalziel. It didn’t take long for Harrison to gain control of the fight. She would dominate from start to finish. Harrison was able to land 17/32 total strike attempts, compared to just 7/9 total attempts by Dalziel. Harrison was able to defeat Dalziel in the first round via an armbar submission to advance to the women’s Lightweight Championship fight against Larissa Pacheco.
Now that the women’s Lightweight Championship fight was set, it was time to find out who would be moving on to the men’s Welterweight Championship fight.
In the first Welterweight Semifinals matchup, it was the #6 seed Ray Cooper III against the #7 seed Chris Curtis. Cooper came out of the gate very strong, determined to make it back to the championship fight for the second straight year. He was able to land 14/28 total strikes and completed both of his takedown attempts. Curtis managed to only land 9/24 total strikes in the first round. Once the second round came, it was all Cooper. He was able to land 6/8 quick strikes and land a vicious hook to knockout Curtis just 11 seconds into the second round. Cooper would be advancing to the men’s Welterweight Championship fight.
The final fight of the night was the second and last Welterweight Semifinal fight. This featured the #1 seed Glaico Franca against the #5 seed David Michaud. This fight was very action-packed, with a lot of back and forth. Franca was able to land 35% (70/201) of his total strikes and completed four of his seven takedown attempts. Michaud was able to land 65% (105/161) of his total strikes, but wasn’t able to complete any of his 14 takedown attempts. After a groin hit by Franca on Michaud at the beginning of the third round, Michaud was angered and determined to win the fight. He would go on to win by majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28) and advance to the men’s Lightweight Championship fight against Ray Cooper III.
There you have it. The participants for two championship fights are scheduled. It’s going to be #5 David Michaud against #6 Ray Cooper III for the men’s Welterweight Championship. And on the women’s side, it’s going to be #2 Kayla Harrison against #4 Larissa Pacheco in the Lightweight Championship fight. These fights, along with the rest of the to be determined championship fights, will take place on December 31 in New York City.
The winners of each weight class will get $1 million and a championship belt. The next night for the PFL Playoffs will be on Thursday, Oct 17 at the Mandalay Bay arena. That night will feature Quarterfinals and Semifinals for the men’s Lightweight (155lbs) and Featherweight (145lbs) divisions.
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