The PFL returned Thursday with postseason spots on the line in the welterweight and light heavyweight divisions.
There was a big surprise in the 2021 PFL 5 main event when [autotag]Gleison Tibau[/autotag] upset former Bellator welterweight champion [autotag]Rory MacDonald[/autotag] with a split decision. MacDonald derided the result as a robbery after the fight – but courtesy of a first-round finish in his first fight of the season, he still had enough points to reach the playoffs despite the loss. Tibau’s win was worth 3 points, which wasn’t enough to make the postseason.
[autotag]Ray Cooper III[/autotag] found himself in an interesting situation, too. He took a unanimous decision from [autotag]Nikolay Aleksakhin[/autotag] in the welterweight co-main event – but couldn’t earn any points in the standings because he missed weight. In fact, he was docked a point for that infraction. But because not enough fighters below him in the standings did enough to pass him, he still will fight in the four-man bracket to go after a second $1 million prize.
Joining MacDonald (6 points) and Cooper (5) in the welterweight postseason will be top seed [autotag]Joan Zeferino[/autotag] (8) and No. 4 seed [autotag]Magomed Magomedkerimov[/autotag] (5).
In light heavyweight fights on the main card, [autotag]Chris Camozzi[/autotag] upset [autotag]Cezar Ferreira[/autotag]. But Ferreira’s 6-point finish in his first fight remained enough to get him to the postseason, and Camozzi’s 3 points from his unanimous decision wasn’t enough to get him in after a loss in his opening fight. And [autotag]Emiliano Sordi[/autotag] fought to a draw with [autotag]Dan Spohn[/autotag], worth just 1 point each. But that was enough to give Sordi 4 points – and a tiebreaker over Cory Hendricks, who had a 4-point finish of [autotag]Marthin Hamlet[/autotag] on the prelims.
Despite the loss, Hamlet still made the playoffs with 5 points. Joining him are [autotag]Antonio Carlos Junior[/autotag] (7) atop the 205-pound table, Ferreira (6) and Sordi (4).
Check out the highlights from 2021 PFL 5 in the video above.
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