By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
PFL 5 and UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov were this past
weekend and featured some exciting fights and further set the stage
for the PFL playoffs. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.
PFL 5
GOOD- Primus, Sy, and Zurcher get finishes. Others win decisions.
Brent Primus (14-3, 1 No Contest) submitted Solomon Renfro (11-6) by
Submission in Round 3.
Sadibou Sy (17-8-2, 1 No Contest) stopped Andrew Sanchez (14-8) by TKO
in Round 3.
Gadzhi Rabadanov (22-4-2) beat Elvin Espinoza (10-1) by Decision.
Adam Piccolotti (15-6) beat Michael Dufort (13-5) by Decision.
Sergio Cossio (19-9-1) beat Anthony Romero (12-3) by Decision.
Brayhan Zurcher (9-0) stopped Julian Ruiz (4-1) by KO in Round 2.
GOOD- Alex Polizzi vs. Antonio Carlos Jr.
Polizzi gets an early takedown but Carlos Jr. is quickly back up. They trade some heavy strikes until Carlos Jr. gets hit low. After a brief pause they resume and the first round ends. The second round begins
with the fighters exchanging strikes until Polizzi gets the fight to the ground. He works his ground-and-pound until the second round ends.
The third round starts with more striking exchanges until Polizzi gets
the fight to the mat again. Polizzi works his ground-and-pound until
the final bell. We go to the judges to render their verdict. Polizzi
wins the decision to improve to 11-4 and snap his 3 fight losing
streak while Carlos Jr. drops to 16-6 with 2 No Contests and has his 5
fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Polizzi.
GOOD- Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov vs. Simon Biyong
The fight starts tentatively, with Yagshimuradov landing a lot of
kicks while Biyong looks to find his rhythm. The second round begins
with more methodical striking for basically the entire round until Yagshimuradov gets a late takedown right before the end of the second round. The third round starts with another Yagshimuradov takedown.
Biyong finally works his way back to his feet after a long while.
Yagshimuradov gets another late takedown and the fight ends. We go to
the judges to render their verdict. Yagshimuradov gets the decision to
improve to 23-7-1 and has won 5 straight fights while Biyong drops to
9-5 and has lost 3 straight fights. Good win for Yagshimuradov.
GOOD- Rob Wilkinson vs. Josh Silveira
They grapple for most of the first round, with Silveira trying to get a takedown but getting denied each time. The second round begins with
more clinch work, with Wilkinson denying Silveira’s takedown attempts
again. The third round starts with Wilkinson getting an early
takedown. They grapple for the rest of the fight until the bell rings.
We go to the judges to render their verdict. Wilkinson wins the Split Decision to improve to 19-2 with 1 No Contest while Silveira drops to 13-3. Good win for Wilkinson.
GOOD- Bruno Miranda vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire
They start off with a wild brawl until Pitbull gets a takedown.
Miranda gets back to his feet quickly and they spend the rest of the first round exchanging strikes. The second round begins with Pitbull
and Miranda trading power punches. That continues until near the end
of the second round when Miranda hurts Pitbull with some powerful
combinations but can’t finish him before the round ends. The third
round starts with more powerful striking until Pitbull gets a
takedown. Not a lot comes from it, though, and they get restarted.
Miranda peppers Pitbull with punches and they exchange until the fight
ends. We go to the judges to render their verdict. Miranda wins the Split Decision to improve to 17-5 while Pitbull drops to 25-14 and has
lost 3 straight fights. Good win for Miranda.
GOOD- Impa Kasanganay stops Jakob Nedoh
Kasanganay attacks with combinations early until Nedoh gets a takedown
and works some ground-and-pound until the first round ends. The second
round begins with several striking exchanges between the fighters.
Kasanganay gets a takedown but Nedoh is right back up and gets a takedown of his own. Both men back to their feet when Kasanganay drops
Nedoh with a combination and swarms but Nedoh is saved by the bell.
However, the cageside doctor stops the fight in between rounds two and
three. Kasangany gets the win and improves to 17-4 while Nedoh drops
to 8-3. Good win for Kasanganay.
GOOD- Mads Burnell vs. Clay Collard
Lots of striking exchanges in the first round, with Collard throwing
heavy volume. Burnell gets some takedowns at the end of the first
round but can’t do anything with them. The second round begins with
more striking exchanges until Burnell gets a takedown. Collard gets back to his feet and lands some strikes but Burnell gets another
takedown and they grapple until the second round ends. The third round
starts with some prolonged striking exchanges until Burnell gets
another takedown. Burnell threatens an arm-triangle that Collard is
able to avoid but it prevents him from getting up anymore. The round
ends so we go to the judges to render their verdict. Burnell wins the decision to improve to 19-6 while Collard drops to 25-13 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Burnell.
The 2024 PFL Playoffs are officially set on the Men’s Lightweight and
Light Heavyweight sides.
To recap for those who may not know. PFL scoring is as follows.
Win: 3 points
Loss: 0 points
Failure to make weight: -1 points and cannot earn any points from the bout.
Bonus points for Finish by KO or Sub
Round 1: 3 points
Round 2: 2 points
Round 3: 1 point
So a maximum of 6 points can be earned in one fight.
The Final Four Men’s Lightweight matchups will be
#1 Seed Brent Primus (14-3, 1 No Contest) 9 points on 2 wins
vs.
#4 Seed Clay Collard (25-13, 1 No Contest) 5 points on 1 win
#2 Seed Gadzhi Rabadanov (22-4-2) 6 points on 2 wins
vs.
#3 Seed Michael Dufort (13-5) 5 points on 1 win
The Final Four Men’s Light Heavyweight matchups will be
#1 Seed Impa Kasanganay (17-4) 11 points on 2 wins
vs.
#4 Seed Josh Silveira (13-3) 6 points on 1 win
#2 Seed Rob Wilkinson (19-2, 1 No Contest) 9 points on 2 wins
vs.
#3 Seed Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov (23-7-1) 9 points on 2 wins
The Men’s Welterweight and Featherweight playoff matchups will be set
at PFL 6 on June 28th.
*************
There was a Bellator Champions Series 3: Jackson vs. Kuramagomedov
last weekend as well that I missed due to a family commitment. I apologize for missing it.
The main event of the show saw Ramazan Kuramagomedov (13-0) defeat
Bellator Welterweight Champion Jason Jackson (18-5) by 5-Round
Decision in a close fight to become the new Bellator Welterweight
Champion.
*************
UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov
GOOD- Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir
They’re exchanging strikes early until Oezdemir drops Walker with a
big left hand. Walker is back up but Oezdemir pummels him with more
punches and finishes him off with a big right uppercut that ends the fight nearly halfway through the first round. Yikes, that looked bad.
The referee should have stopped it before it got so far. Oezdemir
improves to 20-7 while Walker drops to 21-9 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Oezdemir.
GOOD- Sharaputdin Magomedov vs. Antonio Trocoli
They start off clinching on the fence. Magomedov is throwing a lot of
kicks while Trocoli keeps clinching and the first round ends. The
second round begins with the fighters exchanging kicks before Trocoli
tries for a takedown. He can’t get it because Magomedov grabs the
fence. That could be a fight-changing moment there. They continue to
grapple until the end of the second round. The third round starts with
Magomedov landing some hard kicks. He then opened up and dropped
Trocoli and got the stoppage win nearly halfway through the third round. Magomedov remains undefeated at a perfect 13-0 while Trocoli drops to 12-4 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Magomedov.
GOOD- Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez
This was supposed to be a welterweight fight but Gastelum had issues
cutting weight so it was changed to a middleweight bout. They start off exchanging strikes. They’re both landing good combinations before
the first round ends. The second round begins with more striking exchanges until Gastelum gets a takedown. Rodriguez is right back up,
though, and they resume striking. It’s a close round but Rodriguez had
more volume so we might be tied heading into the final round. The third round starts with more striking exchanges until Gastelum gets a takedown. Gastelum works his ground-and-pound until he lets Rodriguez
up just so he can take him down again. Gastelum uses more
ground-and-pound until the fight ends. We go to the judges to render
their verdict. Gastelum wins the decision to improve to 19-9 with 1 No
Contest while Rodriguez drops to 17-5 and has lost three straight
fights. Good win for Gastelum.
UGLY- Gastelum was grossly over the weight limit. Gastelum and
Rodriguez were supposed to fight at 170lbs. A day before they were supposed to step on the scale for the weigh-ins, Gastelum and his team
informed Rodriguez that Gastelum wouldn’t be able to make weight for
welterweight. A day, a single day. Rodriguez was already reportedly at
179lbs. Gastelum weighed in at 184.5lbs., which means he had to cut
weight to get there. I won’t go on too much more about this because
I’m sure he won’t be allowed to fight at welterweight again anytime
soon but this is very wrong and Gastelum should donate a large chunk of his salary to Rodriguez for this.
GOOD- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov
They mainly trade kicks in the first round, along with some punches in
the last few minutes. The second round begins with more sparring.
Pavlovich is trying to get in close while Volkov stays out of range
and lands leg kicks. The third round starts with more of the same,
except Pavlovich is more desperate to get in close and his face is getting mangled by Volkov’s jab because of it. The crowd is booing but
this isn’t a bad fight, it’s just not an adrenaline rush type of
fight. This is more of a tactical strategy type of fight. Volkov can’t
let Pavlovich in close because he could end the fight with one punch
so he keeps him at a distance. It’s not the most exciting fight but
it’s interesting. There was also a funny moment where Volkov’s
cornerman was combing his hair in between rounds. Anyway, the fight
ends so we go to the judges to render their verdict. Volkov wins the decision to improve to 38-10 and has won 4 straight fights while Pavlovich drops to 18-3. Good win for Volkov.
GOOD- Robert Whittaker vs. Ikram Aliskerov
Whittaker starts off with a big right hook that rocks Aliskerov.
Whittaker swarms and drops him with an uppercut before pouncing on him
and forcing the referee to jump in to stop the fight not quite two
minutes into the first round. Whittaker improves to 26-7 while
Aliskerov drops to 15-2 and has his 7 fight winning streak snapped.
Good win for Whittaker.
My new epic fantasy book is out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: The End’s
Beginning. The exciting epic fantasy series Kingdom of Zarias returns with the 4th book in the series. After the harrowing events of Book 3 the residents of the Kingdom of Zarias continue on their paths.
Serena Summers continues to learn and grow as a fighter, desperately seeking to become stronger before she loses anyone else in her life.
Daniel Summers discovers new parts of the world that open his eyes to just how little he truly knows. A new hero, Lamar Abeers, arrives to
join the fight against evil. Plus, Zach Summers, Tiana Highsmith, and Xavien Ekens continue their journeys with their friends, and a new ruler of Vhaharen is crowned. The world has found a little peace.
However, that peace is only temporary. In a shocking act of violence,
the monstrous villain Galren strikes from the shadows and changes the
world forever. This is Book 4 in the series. There’s lots of action,
magic, and monsters in the Kingdom of Zarias. It’s like a tabletop
game in novel form. It’s on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re interested, I would greatly appreciate it if you would check it out and support me. Also, here’s the link to my Compendium book about the Kingdom of Zarias series- KoZ Compendium Thank you
very much, have a good day.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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