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The PFL Thread 💰 (March 7th - Doumbe vs. Chamsoudinov)


Egg Shen

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So yeah, I attended the PFL show in Cardiff Saturday night. A mate of mine had press credentials, so I tagged along with him, very cool experience. Firstly, the PFL as a production is pretty slick, i'd say it's close to the UFC in terms of a production standpoint. They pulled a pretty good crowd in too, I was half expecting the Motorpoint to be close to empty, but i'd say the Arena was around 3/4 full when the main card was happening, so a couple of thousand in. I heard about them comping tickets, but regardless it made for a good atmosphere in the building, all the fights got a good response too considering there was only 2 Welsh fighters on the show.

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I had access to the media area for the show but chose to go milling about to see if I could get a decent seat close to the cage. I got there early so I parked myself in the front row and managed to stay there most of the night, directly behind the red corner. Very cool to be that close and just watch what was going on close to the cage and see the people milling about in there (Ray Sefo, Stevie Ray, GAD!) . Aaron Chalmers was sat on the other side of the barricade directly in front of me, had a quick chat to him about his boxing, had time for anyone who came and chatted to him, tidy guy. Dan Hardy was doing a roaming reporter thing at cage side too and was also very cool to anyone who called him over for a photo, Hardy took extra time with any kid that approached him too, very cool to see. His missus was about as well 😍

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The actual fights were were decent. No great fights, but some excellent performances. The two heavyweights booking themselves Finale spots looked great, Matheus Scheffel battered Juan Adams on the feet, it was quite tough to watch so close up, Scheffel has some hands on him. Ante Delija was the standout though, just seems a beast, he went through Renan Ferreira with ease, also a bonus for him to have Mirko Crocop in his corner! Hadn't expected to see Mirko.

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The qualifying fights for next year's tournaments and challengers series were all laid out well, they made it pretty clear what the stakes were for each fight and every fight had something riding on it. I love the layout's too of putting the main fights in the middle of the card, means the fights happened whilst the arena was at it's fullest and everyone were up for it, it emptied out a bit after the Rory MacDonald fight, but the crowd were there when it mattered most.

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The big talking point was of course Rory MacDonald getting stopped in a round by late replacement Dilano Taylor. There was not a lot in it before the finish, but the finish itself was quick and violent. That's the end for Rory, it's a shame to see him go out like that, but the guy hasn't really been right post-UFC. I think the plan was to bag a couple of $1 million payouts and ride off into the sunset, but it wasn't to be. All that said, Rory got a great pop from the crowd, you could sense that people had really shown up to see Rory fight which was something I hadn't expected given the relatively small profile of the PFL, maybe i underestimate the pull of MMA fandom? but given that Cage Warriors had a show full of Welsh fighters just up the road, it did feel like a knowledgeable MMA crowd.

All in all, a very positive experience which solidified me as a fan of the promotion. Left me bang up for watching the London show this week as well.

Look over the shoulder of GAD at the time of the KO for an Egg cameo reaction  :D

Edited by Egg Shen
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Mirko! Love the bloke.

I knew the name Ante Delija rang a bell. He was actually briefly signed to the UFC and was supposed to fight Ciryl Gane in 2020 but there was some weirdness from what I remember. Think the UFC jumped the gun and then it turned out Delija was still actually under contract with PFL. It was something like that. He’s a big old lump.

Sad to see Rory go out on a loss like that. He did have the odd bright spot post-UFC but yeah, never quite the same after that epic second fight with Lawler. One of the best Canadian fighters ever in MMA all around though. Never really found that true consistency but the nights he was on he was incredible. I’ll always remember him like this though, I’m afraid. 

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Yeah, Delija seems the real deal at Heavyweight, i'd imagine he'd slot nicely into that UFC division. Has a nice little gig here with the PFL though. Like Burgos signing, it's just a great alternative promotion for the fighters. Burgos likely would have milled around just outside the UFC's top 15 for the next few years, but he's gonna be a showcase piece for the PFL, plus there's the money. It's pretty much been proven that it's no easy task to go in there and just win the Tournaments though (unless your Kayla Harrison).

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It was brief, he was working in the inner-cage area so just grabbed a quick photo when he was stood around waiting, he was sound though, good interaction. 

Not going to London, but I would definitely goto another PFL show in future if I got the chance too.

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Yeah, that's pretty interesting. I listened to Burgos on the MMA Hour and it sounded like a pretty straight forward situation on his end, he decided to field offers, the PFL came in and he accepted it. It sounds to me like Dana is annoyed that Burgos wasn't tied up before they let his contract run out. 

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Looks like you had a great time, ebb! I Just watched that Rory fight too, which is the first time Ive seen a PFL fight. Do they do that really annoying sound effect for every fight? The one when it tells you what speed they are throwing a punch at. Incredibly annoying and utterly pointless. Who gives a damn what speed a punch is? Its annoying enough that its on screen at all times, and then a hundred more times annoying that they use a video game like noise every time it changes.

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That's tonight's lineup. Kayla is obviously the stand out name but the fight to watch is Loughnane/Wade. The PFL hasn't had many fights with genuine bad blood involved, this is one, it should be a cracker.

Few UK prospects littered throughout which the PFL are doing good job of highlighting as potential stars for them. Good stuff.

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Ey up.

He’s clearly a shell of himself at this point but I’d love to see him win a tournament in PFL and get a few big paycheques before it’s all over. Especially with him and Yana Kunitskaya recently having a little girl. He’s on borrowed time but he showed flashes of having something left in the tank against Jamahal Hill in August. Hopefully it works out for him. Always thought he seemed like one of the nicer guys in the game. 

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