The Professional Fighters League wrapped up its semifinals late Friday night — a high school football game ran long and PFL opted to wait it out, thus delaying the main card start time — and now we know all 12 finalists for this fall’s season finale.
Two former UFC fighters are in position for a $1 million prize at the end of this long journey. One of them is Chris Wade, who took a decision over Bubba Jenkins in Friday’s featherweight semifinals, and he’ll take on Movlid Khaybulaev after his decision win over Brendan Loughnane. You may recall Loughnane was denied at UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series for shooting on a takedown late in a fight he was comfortably winning. Well this time Loughnane was the one getting taken down and even though he stunned Khaybulaev in the final round he failed to capitalize.
The other UFC veteran is Antonio Carlos Junior. ‘Shoeface’ defeated 2019 champion Emiliano Sordi by unanimous decision in a grueling fight and will face Norway’s Marthin Hamlet. Now there’s a bit of an interesting story here because Hamlet TKO’d Cezar Ferreira in 13 seconds, but the whole sequence started after Ferreira seemingly injured his hamstring throwing a kick. He took an awkward step back and fell down, prompting Hamlet to pounce for the finish.
The 2021 PFL Finals take place on Wednesday, October 27th on ESPN2. Claressa Shields’ second MMA fight is also scheduled for this card.
Featherweight: Movlid Khaybulaev vs. Chris Wade
Men’s Lightweight: Raush Manfio vs. Loik Radzhabov
Women’s Lightweight: Kayla Harrison vs. Taylor Guardado
Welterweight: Magomed Magomedkerimov vs. Ray Cooper III
Light Heavyweight: Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Marthin Hamlet
Heavyweight: Bruno Cappelozza vs. Ante Delija
