Category: PFL

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 25: Big wins in London, but any big moves?

UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall made a successful main event return from injury, but did it shake up the rankings?

The UFC’s return to The O2 in London saw a few big wins throughout the card.

From [autotag]Ketlen Vieira[/autotag]’s unanimous decision win over Pannie Kianzad early on the prelims, to [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag]’s main event first-round finish of Marcin Tybura, there were a number of key wins for fighters already in, or hovering around the top 15 of their divisions.

Vieira entered the week at No. 3 in the USA TODAY SPORTS/MMA Junkie women’s bantamweight rankings, while Kianzad was No. 9. Considering who is above and between both fighters, they maintain their positions in this week’s update.

A similar story played out in the heavyweight division. Aspinall entered at No. 8, and keeps the same spot despite a spectacular finish. Tybura keeps his place at No. 10 as well, but there are a few big fights at heavyweight on the horizon that could shake up the division.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 18: Mayra Bueno Silva leaps forward

Mayra Bueno Silva tapped former UFC women’s bantamweight champ Holly Holm, causing big moves in the division in this week’s rankings update.

The UFC women’s bantamweight division has a new contender.

[autotag]Mayra Bueno Silva[/autotag] pulled off the biggest win of her career at UFC on ESPN 49, and made it look relatively easy. Considering her opponent was former bantamweight champion Holly Holm, many were shocked to see Bueno Silva tap the former champ in the second round.

Entering the week at No. 11 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s bantamweight rankings, Bueno Silva takes a huge leap forward, landing at No. 4. Holm previously held the spot, but she takes a step backward, along with the rest of the division as Bueno Silva establishes herself as the new name to watch out for in the title picture.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.

KSW boss pitches PFL co-promotion for Francis Ngannou vs. champ Phil De Fries

KSW hopes the PFL is willing to put together a cross-promotion bout putting Francis Ngannou vs. its best heavyweight

The rest of [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag]’s year will be focused on his anticipated boxing match with Tyson Fury. Once that’s complete, though, he is expected to return to MMA and debut in the PFL.

After concluding his UFC contract and splitting from the promotion earlier this year, Ngannou (17-3) signed with PFL for an expected debut in early 2024. There’s no clear-cut opponent for him, however, and KSW co-owner Martin Lewandowski has a pitch involving his current heavyweight champion, [autotag]Phil De Fries[/autotag].

“For me, Phil De Fries is one of the best heavyweights on the planet today. He is a different animal than when he was in the UFC last, and he would give anyone in the whole division trouble,” Lewandowski told MMA Junkie. “Outside the UFC, there are not many heavyweights who can offer a legit test to Ngannou. Of course, it needs to makes sense for both KSW and PFL. But I am in good contact with Ray Sefo and the PFL, and would be willing to do what I can to get it done.”

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Multiple scenarios must play out before a KSW and PFL cross-promotion could materialize. First and foremost, De Fries (23-6) must successfully achieve his ninth consecutive title defense Saturday when he meets Szymon Bajor (24-9) in the main event of KSW 84, which takes place at Gdynia Arena in Poland and streams on pay-per-view via KSW’s official website.

Secondly, Ngannou, who takes on Fury in a 10-round bout on Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia, must be keen to return to competition after securing what’s expected to be a massive payday from the Fury fight.

De Fries hasn’t lost since May 2017, and Lewandowski sees him as a more significant threat to Ngannou than anyone currently on PFL’s roster.

“I would be open to having a crossover fight with PFL for Phil to fight Francis Ngannou,” Lewandowski said. “If he passes this test, it will be his 12th straight victory, his 10th straight win in KSW, and his ninth title defense. He has already made history by being the longest reigning champion ever in KSW and the heavyweight with the most title defenses in any of the major MMA promotions.

“After Francis is finished with Tyson Fury, how about an actual MMA fight with the KSW heavyweight champion?”

Kenny Florian explains why ‘PFL did the right thing’ in replacing Natan Schulte for Shane Burgos in 2023 playoffs

Kenny Florian believes that PFL ultimately did the right thing in removing Natan Schulte from the 2023 playoffs.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Kenny Florian[/autotag] doesn’t like the situation that presented itself in the playoffs for PFL’s 2023 lightweight season, but ultimately, he does think it was handled the best way possible.

Last month, [autotag]Natan Schulte[/autotag] beat his friend and teammate [autotag]Raush Manfio[/autotag] at 2023 PFL 6 in a lackluster decision to advance to the lightweight playoffs going down on Aug. 23. However, shortly after, the PFL removed Schulte from the playoffs despite qualifying based on the point system and replaced him with former UFC fighter [autotag]Shane Burgos[/autotag], who didn’t earn enough points to advance.

The promotion justified the move by citing that Schulte and Manfio did not perform to their contractually-obligated level of effort. This caused plenty of controversy in the MMA community.

Florian, who’s a commentator for the PFL, understands the nature of the situation, but disagrees with the criticism that’s been thrown the promotion’s way.

“It’s tough because I can certainly side with the fighters, and by the fighters I mean Natan Schulte and Raush Manfio, in that they were put in a difficult spot,” Florian told MMA Junkie Radio at the UFC X event. “These guys are literally best friends, they’re godfather’s to each other’s kids, so I can definitely sympathize with their situation, but it’s very explicit and very clear in the contract that you actually have to fight 100 percent.

“To me, while watching the fight, I tried to be as honest as possible, but when I was watching the fight I was like, ‘This is basically a sparring session.’ It might’ve even been less than a sparring session. They weren’t throwing full out. Now, some people are saying, ‘Well, this isn’t a fighter’s first thing. The PFL put these guys in this situation, and you can’t just put Shane Burgos in that situation and put him to advance to playoffs.’ What I would argue and say is, they actually are because for someone who did fight their butt off, and they tried to make it to the other side of the bracket and see two other guys that didn’t really take any punches, didn’t really take any kicks, it was basically a grappling match, you could argue, ‘Hey, I have to fight my way and risk my health to make it to the other side and make it to the playoffs.’ These guys really didn’t.”

Although Florian understands why people would be mad, he does think PFL handled it the best they could. The other alternatives could’ve set an ugly precedent, according to Florian.

“I see both sides, but in the end PFL did the right thing because as an organization, and I’m not really big on, ‘Put these fighters down. They have to learn their lesson,’ but at the same time, how do you as an organization have something like that happen and not penalize the fighter?” Florian said. “If you do that, you open up a big Pandora’s box and people go, ‘Well, they did it. Why can’t we do it?’ I think moving on to the future, it would be in the interest of all organizations to go, ‘Hey, listen. We’re not going to have two guys that are best friends, that fight in the same team, that have that kind of relationship fight each other because you risk this thing actually happening, especially when you’re talking about two guys who are trying to make it to the playoffs.’

“So that’s my take on it. It’s unfortunate all the way around. I feel bad for all parties. If Shane Burgos was outpointed by someone else, that person would’ve been put in that situation. They would’ve advanced instead of Shane Burgos in my opinion. So I don’t think it was about Shane Burgos and them trying to put him into the playoffs. I don’t think it was a foul play on the PFL.”

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PFL announces lineups for pair of August playoff events in New York

The semifinal fights are set for the PFL’s 2023 postseason at lightweight, welterweight, heavyweight, and women’s featherweight.

The remaining semifinal fights are set for the PFL’s 2023 postseason in August.

The promotion announced the lineups for the second and third playoff events taking place at The Theater at MSG in New York on Aug.18 and Aug 23. The events will host semifinal playoff bouts at lightweight, welterweight, heavyweight, and women’s featherweight. Both events will also host a number of non-playoff showcase bouts, and the return of Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Biaggio Ali Walsh for an amateur bout.

Winners of the playoff bouts will advance to 2023 PFL Championships for a chance a a $1 million purse.

Check out details about the events below.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 11: Pantoja rises, Volkanovski new No. 1 P4P

Alexandre Pantoja is the new UFC flyweight champion, and as a result, nearly reaches the top of the divison’s rankings in this week’s update.

The UFC’s flyweight division has a new champion, and his name is [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag].

In the co-feature of UFC 290, Pantoja emerged victorious by split decision against Brandon Moreno in a five-round affair. It was an intense fight, and aside from the one judge who saw the fight in Moreno’s favor, most agreed with the other two judges that Pantoja was the correct winner of the flyweight title.

Pantoja entered the bout ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY SPORTS/MMA Junkie flyweight rankings. After claiming the title, he rises up to settle in at No. 2, only behind Demetrious Johnson.

The main event of the pay-per-view event saw [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] maintain his stronghold over the featherweight division by recording a third-round TKO of Yair Rodriguez. Volkanovski unified the title, and keeps his No. 1 position in the division. However, his run has elevated him to No. 1 elsewhere, taking the top spot in men’s pound-for-pound.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.

PFL announces immediate USADA anti-doping partnership ‘very similar’ to UFC’s but ‘with minor distinctions’

The UFC and PFL drug testing protocols will be “will be very similar, with minor distinctions,” according to an email acquired by MMA Junkie.

In the wake of numerous positive athlete drug tests, PFL has officially partnered with USADA, the same anti-doping organization utilized by the UFC.

In a memo sent Tuesday by PFL president of fighter operations Ray Sefo to fighters and teams, the promotion announced its immediate installment of the partnership and detailed what that exactly means. Fighters who are partaking in the upcoming playoffs are now required to partake in educational introduction sessions later this week.

According to a document attached to the email, the PFL and UFC drug-testing protocols implemented by USADA “will be very similar, with minor distinctions to account for the PFL’s sport season format.” It is unclear exactly what those distinctions are at this time.

Additonally, whereabouts failures will not be installed to start, though the document indicates that will eventually change.

MMA Junkie acquired and verified the email with multiple people who received it, but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has not yet spoken publicly on the matter. USADA confirmed the partnership on a new informational page on their official website. ESPN first reported the news.

Read below the email message sent to fighters:

“PFL Fighters,

We are proud to announce that today we are formally launching the PFL Anti-Doping Program in partnership with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

USADA conducts year-round, independent anti-doping programs for all Olympic, Paralympic, and UFC athletes, and will now do so for PFL athletes as well.

This program is part of the PFL’s commitment as a fighter first organization to supporting a safe, level playing field and advancing the highest levels of competition and the integrity of the sport.

The program will begin immediately with initial educational sessions being scheduled with USADA this week for participants in the upcoming Playoffs. Educational sessions to explain the program will be scheduled with other fighters thereafter. It is strongly recommended that each fighter have their coach, manager, or other key support person join the educational sessions.

The PFL Fighter Ops Team will follow up shortly with more details.

In the meantime, more information about the program is available in the attached FAQs and at http://PFL.USADA.org.

Ray Sefo
President of Fighter Operations”

The partnership with USADA comes after a 2023 regular season filled with drug test failures and, at a Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) hearing, is one PFL indicated would soon come.

Though it does not appear athletic commissions changed their independent drug testing procedures, 10 fighters tested positive over the span of the promotion’s first three regular season events in Las Vegas.

Among the positives were 2022 light heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson, 2021 heavyweight champion Bruno Cappelozza, former UFC title challenger and Thiago Santos.

All of the fighters who tested positive were suspended, fined, and those who won had their victories overturned. The results of the drug tests from the PFL’s second grouping of regular season events, which took place in Atlanta in June, have not yet been publicized.

Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury boxing match booked for October in Saudi Arabia

There will be no tune-up match for former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou, who will jump into boxing’s deep end against Tyson Fury.

[autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] hoped for a slow entry into the world of boxing if he couldn’t jump into the deep end straight away against someone like [autotag]Tyson Fury[/autotag].

Now it appears there won’t be a tune-up fight. Ngannou will box Fury in Saudi Arabia on Oct. 28. His manager, Marquel Martin, confirmed the fight to MMA Junkie on Tuesday following multiple reports, including ESPN.

The fight has been talked about for more than a year, but in recent weeks it was looking like a long shot. But Martin told MMA Junkie his client pulled it off.

“It’s all been a blessing,” Martin told MMA Junkie via text message. “Hollywood couldn’t write a better script. Moral of the story: Don’t bet against Francis.”

Ngannou tweeted the news, as well.

“I’ve been waiting to meet Tyson in the ring for the past three years,” Ngannou said in a news release posted by ESPN. “My dream was always to box, and to box the best. After becoming the undisputed MMA heavyweight champion, this is my opportunity to make that dream come true and cement my position as the baddest man on the planet. All I will say to Tyson for now is he better dance in that ring because if I touch him, he’s going to sleep.”

Ngannou vacated his heavyweight title after a contract dispute and left the UFC earlier this year as a free agent. In March, former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones won the vacant heavyweight belt against Ciryl Gane, and will defend it in November at UFC 295.

In May, Ngannou signed a groundbreaking deal with the PFL that is expected to see him in main event, pay-per-view level-type fights and made him a PFL executive, to boot – but also allows him the freedom to box.

Not long after he signed with the PFL, Ngannou told DAZN that he dreamed of a Fury fight, but was realistic to think it might not happen.

“I always dreamed of getting Tyson Fury, but he’s not quite available right now,” Ngannou said in May. “… My goal is to have a tune-up fight this year – at least one before next year. That’s the vision for boxing. My team engaged some discussion with Floyd’s Money Team promotion regarding boxing, and we’re going to see about that, but we’re definitely coming out with a plan, and we’re coming out with something very soon.”

That plan turned out to be Fury after all. What will be a near-certainty is Ngannou and Fury likely will do well financially. Fury recently said he expects Ngannou to make 10-50 times more money than UFC fighters. The irony of that is UFC president Dana White was highly critical of Ngannou when he left the promotion and said Ngannou turned down a deal that would’ve made him the richest heavyweight in history.

In recent weeks, White has tried to stir up talk about Fury against Jones, but Fury wouldn’t take the bait for a crossover MMA fight. Now he has a boxing match against not only a Jones rival, but a White and UFC rival now, as well.

But the fight that was considered a long shot just a few weeks ago now is a reality.

“As soon as that bell goes, it”ll be bombs away,” Fury said in the release. “This guy is supposed to be the hardest puncher in the world, but let’s see how he reacts when he gets hit by the Big GK. I can’t wait to get back out there under the lights. I’m looking forward to showing the world that ‘The Gypsy King’ is the greatest fighter of his generation in an epic battle with another master of his craft. Francis looked tough when he jumped in the ring after the (Dillian) Whyte fight, but there is no one tougher than me.”

For more on the matchup, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Fury vs. Ngannou.

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USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 4: Sean Strickland moves up

Sean Strickland has won back-to-back main events, and continues to climb in the middleweight rankings.

UFC middleweight contender [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] is getting closer to the top of the division.

At UFC on ESPN 48, Strickland overcame adversity in the first round to finish Abus Magomedov with a flurry of punches in the second frame. The win was Strickland’s second main event victory of the year, after kicking off 2023 with a unanimous decision win over Nassourdine Imavov.

Entering the week at No. 7, Strickland now settles in at No. 6, overtaking Marvin Vettori.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.

UFC, MMA notables celebrate Fourth of July on social media

UFC and MMA fighters’ patriotism was in full force in a variety of ways for Independence Day 2023 in the U.S.

UFC and MMA fighters’ patriotism was on display in full force for Independence Day in the U.S.

Typically, personalities from throughout the sport chose to celebrate the holiday in a variety of ways. Some opt to enjoy time with friends and family. Others keep trapped in the gym to focus on upcoming fights. There’s a mix of all that going on in 2023.

Check below for a collection of the top social media reactions to the Fourth of July holiday.

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