Author: mmafighting
Once on the wrong end of one of the all-time insane knockouts in UFC history, Impa Kasanganay can now call himself a world champion, and a millionaire. Kasanganay — who earned his spot in the 2023 PFL light heavyweight season on the Challenger Series earlier in the year — captured the promotion’s 205-pound season championship with a one-sided unanimous decision win over Josh Silveira at Friday’s PFL World Championship event in Washington, D.C. The 29-year-old went 2-2 in the UFC, including a brutal knockout loss to Joaquin Buckley in October 2020, but is now 6-0 since parting ways with the…
Watch Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Clay Collard full fight video highlights from the main card of of the PFL World Championship 2023 card, courtesy of the PFL and other outlets. PFL World Championship 2023 took place Nov. 24 at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. The 2022 PFL lightweight champion Olivier Aubin-Mercier competed in his second straight lightweight title fight against fellow former UFC fighter Clay Collard in the main event of Friday’s fight card. In the end, Aubin-Mercier was able to use his superior grappling en route to a unanimous decision and his second consecutive $1 million prize. Check out full…
Olivier Aubin-Mercier gutted his way through a grueling fight with Clay Collard to become a two-time lightweight champion in the PFL World Championship 2023 main event. Nothing came easy once Aubin-Mercier dealt with a potential leg injury after absorbing several calf kicks early in the fight but he kept pushing for takedowns, which allowed him to control Collard on the ground for huge swaths of time. Late in the fifth and final round, Aubin-Mercier nearly pulled off a fight finishing submission with a rear-naked choke but Collard fought his way free to make it to the final bell. In the…
A bad start eventually led to a phenomenal ending for Renan Ferreira after he delivered a blistering knockout to finish Denis Goltsov and become the new PFL heavyweight champion. The Brazilian spent almost five full minutes on his back fending off submission attempts from Goltsov but the momentum shifted in dramatic fashion in the second round. Ferreira came out firing as soon as he left the corner and an overhand right clipped Goltsov and put him on wobbly legs. Ferreira wasted no time seizing on the opening as he continued to throw punches until another right hand dropped Goltsov to…
Magomed Magomedkerimov became a two-time PFL champion with his third-round submission win over Sadibou Sy at the 2023 PFL World Championshp and he wasted no time turning his attention to his next opponent. Just seconds after having his hand raised, Magomedkerimov engaged in a faceoff with Bellator welterweight champion Jason Jackson, who sat and watched the fight cageside just one week after his title fight victory over Yaroslav Amosov. There was no tension between the fights but both athletes appeared ready to clash in a champion vs. champion showdown with rumors swirling around a February date. “It’s been a long…
Kayla Harrison got back in the win column after a dominant victory over Aspen Ladd at the PFL Championship 2023 card on Friday. It was Harrison’s first appearance since falling to Larissa Pacheco almost exactly one year ago but she wasted no time proving why she’s still one of the top women’s fighters in the world while scoring multiple takedowns on Ladd over three rounds. Harrison continuously shredded Ladd’s defenses while unleashing punches and knees on the ground before the fight came to a close. When it was over, the judges all scored the fight 30-27 for Harrison. “She was…
Outside of a brief moment in the first round where Ray Cooper III landed a wild punch from an awkward position, former UFC fighter Derek Brunson made it look easy in his PFL debut. Brunson dominated Cooper from start-to-finish — even earning a pair of 30-25 scorecards — en route to a unanimous decision win over the former two-time PFL welterweight champion in the 185-pound main card opener of the PFL World Championship on Friday. Brunson dominated in the grappling department, landing flurries of ground and pound, and spent the majority of the fight in a dominant position. Throughout the…
Anthony Smith is stepping up on short notice to take on one of the UFC’s surging light heavyweights. On Friday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that due to illness, Azamat Murzakanov is out of his scheduled UFC Austin bout with Khalil Rountree on Dec. 2. Rountree will now shift to the following week’s UFC Vegas 83 event to face the one-time UFC title challenger in the co-main event. After losing two straight bouts, Smith bounced back with a hard fought split decision win over Ryan Spann at UFC Singapore in August, which served as Smith’s first win in nearly two…
Chantelle Cameron doesn’t have a problem with Eddie Hearn playing favorites. This Saturday in Dublin, Cameron faces Katie Taylor in a rematch of their May fight where Cameron won a majority decision, successfully defending her light-welterweight titles and handing Taylor her first career loss. Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom Sport, is the promoter of both women and while he has tried to stay neutral, Cameron says she knows he favors Taylor and that she’s okay with that. “Katie’s his golden girl,” Cameron said this week on The MMA Hour. “I know that and it doesn’t bother me. At the end…
Gabriel Braga has bold plans for his 2024 season in the Professional Fighters League. The undefeated Brazilian prospect is set to rematch Jesus Pinedo on the 2023 PFL featherweight finals on Friday, and while he obviously loves the fact that there’s $1 million on the line, he’s also looking forward to possibly facing Bellator king Patricio Pitbull. “Patricio is my idol,” Braga said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast. “I’ve watched him train since I was a kid, and he’s trained a lot with my father. F***, it would be really cool to be on the same organization as him,…