What we realized at PFL four
Marc Raimondi
Myron Medcalf
ShutESPN Workers Author Covers school basketball
Joined ESPN.com in 2011
Graduate of Minnesota State College, Mankato
The primary two Skilled Fighters League playoff brackets are set, with 12 fighters within the welterweight and girls’s light-weight divisions nonetheless within the operating for $1 million paydays.
Glaico Franca is the highest seed at welterweight, whereas defending champion Magomed Magomedkerimov is No. 2. At ladies’s light-weight, high seed Sarah Kaufman is on the alternative aspect of the bracket from No. 2 Kayla Harrison, because the PFL hoped.
After a loopy Thursday night time in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, full of knockouts and submissions all through, ESPN MMA panelists Marc Raimondi and Myron Medcalf break down the largest tales popping out of PFL four.
Who had essentially the most spectacular night time at PFL four?
Marc Raimondi: Do not look now, however the largest contender to Magomed Magomedkerimov’s PFL welterweight throne is Glaico Franca. The Brazilian fighter stopped Sadibou Sy by third-round TKO on Thursday night time for his second straight end of the season — ok to earn him a No. 1 seed within the playoffs. Two judges had Sy profitable the primary two rounds and Franca wanted a end to win, and he received the job achieved. That is the form of opportunism one wants on this PFL format. Franca has received eight in a row since being launched by the UFC after losses to high lightweights James Vick and Gregor Gillespie. In that span, he has completed all however a type of fights. Franca is the true deal, and he’ll get Andre Fialho within the first spherical of the playoffs.
Myron Medcalf: I am going to go together with Larissa Pacheco. After she went three stable rounds with Kayla Harrison at PFL 1, the postfight buzz centered on the Olympic judo champion and dismissed Pacheco’s expertise. However she’s solely 24 years outdated. She has fought within the UFC. And he or she’s a legit jiu jitsu practitioner. She was only a footnote after PFL 1. However her first-round arm-bar victory over Bobbi Jo Dalziel, who was undefeated in her MMA profession getting into Thursday’s combat, proved that Pacheco is a sleeper within the ladies’s division. Earlier than we begin speaking about Sarah Kaufman vs. Harrison for the $1 million, we should not overlook the younger Pacheco’s promise. She was dominant towards a robust fighter.
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Kayla Harrison is in management all through all the first spherical and delivers large punches to Morgan Frier’s face. For extra PFL, join ESPN+ http://www.espn.com/watch/espnplus
How necessary was it for the PFL’s playoff format to repay at PFL four?
Medcalf: The PFL created a algorithm to separate itself from a number of the different MMA organizations. Had Thursday’s fights, all of which had playoff implications, did not ship large motion and early stoppages (for the very best doable award within the standings), then the principles would have appeared inconsequential. As a substitute, there have been six stoppages and 5 first-round finishes.
John Howard, David Michaud, Genah Fabian and Larissa Pacheco all entered Thursday’s card with zero factors within the standings. All of them left with spots within the playoffs. That was the purpose for the PFL. The league wished to create this frenzied push for the playoffs and seeds. On Thursday, you could not play it protected. The stakes, inspired by the principles, have been sufficient to make PFL four the most effective MMA playing cards of the yr.
Raimondi: The factor about what the PFL is attempting to do — a purely merit-based, true-sport format — is that it could actually completely blow up within the faces of the promoters. For instance: If Kayla Harrison received completed Thursday night time, she would have missed out on the playoffs. Her season would have been over. All of these advertising and marketing spent to advertise her would have been for naught. However that did not blissful, fortunately sufficient for PFL. Harrison smashed Morgan Frier within the first spherical by way of submission and is within the playoffs, on the alternative aspect of the bracket from Sarah Kaufman — precisely the place the PFL wished her to be. Generally issues do not work out within the common season and the playoffs. This time it did for PFL. After all, both Harrison or Kaufman might lose within the semifinals, so so far as the ladies’s light-weight division goes, the PFL is just not out of the woods but.
Kayla Harrison completed Morgan Frier with a keylock to clinch the No. 2 seed within the playoffs. Ryan Loco/PFL
If chalk holds within the ladies’s light-weight division, whom do you might have in a future Kayla Harrison vs. Sarah Kaufman combat?
Raimondi: That is a very powerful query. Harrison would be the a lot greater fighter. She’s a pure light-weight, whereas Kaufman has spent the overwhelming majority of her profession competing at bantamweight, which is a 20-pound distinction. Kaufman can have the benefit in expertise by a mile, although, and is the higher striker. Kaufman is not too shabby on the bottom, both, however Harrison is a two-time Olympic judo champion who was recognized in that sport for her floor recreation.
It is early for this choice, however I would should go Kaufman at this juncture. Harrison had some struggles in her first combat this season with Pacheco, and Kaufman is on one other degree from Pacheco. Kaufman is a former Strikeforce and Invicta FC champion, and if Kaufman have been within the UFC proper now, she’d be a top-10 — if not top-5 — bantamweight.
Medcalf: Kaufman undoubtedly has the benefit of expertise, and if she takes Harrison’s again the best way Pecheco did at PFL 1, she’ll get the submission. However I nonetheless consider Harrison is the strongest, most athletic fighter within the division, and it is not shut. She has a gear solely she will be able to hit.
I really assume Harrison is extra susceptible towards Muay Thai world champion Genah Fabian than she is towards one other grappler like Kaufman. Fabian might knock her out. However Harrison’s abilities and energy will overwhelm Kaufman, who was combating at 135 kilos with Invicta a yr in the past. Harrison received two Olympic gold medals at 170 kilos. That measurement distinction can be a consider a Kaufman-Harrison combat, too.
Magomed Magomedkerimov could not put Chris Curtis away at PFL four and settled for a unanimous-decision victory. Ryan Loco/PFL
Did Magomed Magomedkerimov present he was human by fading a bit within the third spherical and briefly getting caught?
Medcalf: Sure. Most guys wilt after they take the form of punishment Chris Curtis endured. However Curtis was glorious in defending towards Magomedkerimov’s submission makes an attempt. Any fighter would get drained after working a complete spherical for a rear-naked choke and failing. That was a brand new expertise for Magomedkerimov. That guillotine Curtis slipped on late within the third spherical was tight, however Magomedkerimov escaped. It was an odd sight.
The priority should not be the guillotine, nevertheless, however Magomedkerimov’s failure to complete a one-dimensional fighter, whom he’ll see once more within the quarterfinals. Now, Curtis is aware of he can take something Magomedkerimov brings. He’ll have extra confidence and ought to be extra aggressive.
Raimondi: If Magomedkerimov vs. Chris Curtis was a five-round combat, it may need had a very completely different final result. Curtis was the brisker man within the third spherical, little question about that. It will be very, very fascinating when these two males meet once more within the quarterfinals, which can be a two-round combat. Will Curtis have realized one thing? Or will Magomedkerimov have a robust begin once more, like he did Thursday night time?
Whereas Magomedkerimov confirmed some vulnerability for the primary time in PFL — he is an ideal 7-Zero within the promotion — he by no means appeared to be in any actual hazard of shedding. The Russian all-arounder is among the largest success tales of the early days of the PFL. He was the 2018 welterweight winner and he is the favourite once more this yr. Magomedkerimov, in all, has received 10 straight. There was some trepidation Thursday, however nothing to make you assume he is in any form of hazard come the postseason.
DOOMSDAY �� #PFL4 pic.twitter.com/Z2siE7Ju2X
– ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 12, 2019
Greatest shock of the night time at PFL four?
Raimondi: How in regards to the veteran John Howard? “Doomsday” remains to be ticking and he completely crushed heavy favourite Ray Cooper III within the first spherical with big blows. Howard is a 15-year MMA veteran who has had two separate runs within the UFC. He is not as constant as he as soon as was as a youthful fighter, however the 36-year-old Boston native remains to be clearly able to the spectacular. Howard was as a lot as a +400 underdog. Howard is just Three-2-1 in PFL, however he earned a playoff berth together with his stoppage of Cooper. Within the quarterfinals, he’ll get a winnable matchup within the quarterfinals towards fellow UFC veteran David Michaud. Perhaps 2019 may be the yr of “Doomsday.”
Medcalf: It must be John Howard’s SportsCenter-worthy knockout of Ray Cooper III. This is the factor: Cooper was combating just for a better seed. Howard, a veteran within the sport, wanted one thing spectacular — and he pulled it off. The underdog landed a pair of devastating left hooks that in the end ended Cooper’s night time. And now Cooper has to undergo Sadibou Sy within the quarterfinals to proceed his march towards the title that eluded him final yr. When Cooper comes ahead the best way he did towards Howard, he often ends his opponent’s night time with a KO. On Thursday, Howard fired again and altered the look of the PFL’s welterweight playoffs.