The PFL Thread

[wandshogun09]

1 minute ago, Egg Shen said:

@wandshogun09may be interested in the fighter top right of the poster, how the hell did that come about? out of nowhere.

I was looking at this for ages then wondering what you meant ?

Yeah, where have they dug Huerta up from? 

[Egg Shen]

I have no idea, 3 and a half years since his last fight and on a 4 fight skid. I'm curious to see it, but I dunno what to think.

 

[wandshogun09]

I never saw the Glasgow show but caught this on Twitter. Fuck me I need to watch this fight.

Saw Roger Huerta lost again but he went the distance. Anyone see it? How did he look? 

[Egg Shen]

Fuck! I skipped it too, caught a main event spoiler so didn't bother. Stevie Ray doing some twisty shit. Huerta won a round so at least he was competitive.

Gutted I missed that McGrillen/Garnett fight though. McGrillen has been one of the PFL's best UK finds. He's gonna get his comeuppance before long, but he's fun as hell to watch, madman. Bit of a UK Justin Gaethje.

[wandshogun09]

I wasn’t familiar with McGrillen at all before this, I’d heard the name but never seen him. Quite a first impression. 

[Egg Shen]

Few days out then, the thread needs to be bumped for the PPV this weekend, who's watching?

Edited October 15, 2024 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

I’ll give it a bash. What’s it on over here, still DAZN? 

[Egg Shen]

£20 on DAZN, bullshit decision to put in PPV over here.

[Egg Shen]

PFL have started putting their Embedded style youtube up, here's ep 1:

 

[wandshogun09]

21 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

£20 on DAZN, bullshit decision to put in PPV over here.

[Egg Shen]

This one go more than 2 mins?

here's the face off...fair play to the PFL, i've followed this during the week and given the Saudi involvement, this feels like a pretty big deal.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2024 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

I don’t know if it’s just the pessimist in me taking over but I’ve got a bad feeling about this Ngannou fight tonight. Really hope I’m wrong. There’s no doubt Ngannou’s the more proven fighter and I do think a lot of people are getting a bit too swept up/erect over Ferreira’s size. I still feel like it’s a fight Francis should win but coming off that AJ knockout and losing his son, the vibes are off for me and I’m expecting a sad ending. I’m not convinced he’s gonna be physically or emotionally right. 

Edited October 19, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

I think its very much a who lands first wins type of fight, and if Ngannou is in anyway gun shy I think he could be on the receiving end.

[NeverYield]

Fair play Ngannou, nice to see him get the win.

[wandshogun09]

Self quoting like a div but…

21 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

I don’t know if it’s just the pessimist in me taking over but I’ve got a bad feeling about this Ngannou fight tonight.

Yeah, it was the pessimist talking.

What a relief. Like I said yesterday, it wasn’t really a fight Francis should’ve been losing given who he’s beat in the past. And if this fight had been made immediately after he left the UFC, I’d have quite confidently picked him in a heartbeat. Ferreira’s obviously dangerous and you can never completely count out a big lump like that but it was a fight Francis should win. My doubts were about all the other factors. The distractions with his venture into Boxing, his age, coming off that horrific KO loss to AJ and, most of all, the tragic loss of his son. Right up until they were in the cage I had a horrible feeling it was all gonna end badly for him. Never been more glad to be wrong. Thought he looked good here, all things considered. It was far from his best win, obviously, Ferreira’s nowhere near the level of a lot of Ngannou’s past opposition. But given what he’s been dealing with and the sheer size and power of Ferreira, it was definitely a risky one. It’s one of those fights that people will look back at on Ngannou’s record and dismiss it as a nothing win but if you know the context and circumstances of what was going on with Francis at the time, it was more than that. 

You could see the emotion pouring out of him when it was over. And I’m not ashamed to say I was tearing up myself a bit during his post-fight interview. Can’t even imagine the hell he’s gone through. A loss here would’ve been proper sad and shite for us as viewers but I dread to think of the effect it might’ve had on Francis as well. Not so much losing a MMA fight in itself, he’s lost fights before and seems to handle it quite well. This one felt like he’d put a lot of pressure on himself though, dedicating it to his son and making it his mission to win for him. I’m so glad he won. I used the word ‘relief’ above there and you could almost feel the relief through the screen from Francis at the end of the fight. He didn’t even look happy, just relieved he’d accomplished what he set out to do.

Fucking heartbreaking.

Is this it for Francis? He’s 38, a UFC return is highly unlikely so what else is there? What’s left? Yeah he’s the PFL champion now but what does that even mean? There’s literally zero interesting fights there for Francis. I’ve seen some people throwing around the idea of a return to Boxing and possibly fighting Deontay Wilder but I genuinely hate that. I don’t wanna see Francis in a Boxing ring again, to be honest. He did it, it was cool for a bit, then it was sad for a bit, then it was over. He made a whole heap of money but it’s over. But unless a UFC return is somehow sorted out, and I’m not sure how or if it’s even possible contractually, there’s nothing for him to do now. If this is it, there are worse ways to go out. I’d much rather him finish up like this, on a positive, dedicating the win to his son, than carrying on just to carry on with no real purpose. That’s when it usually starts getting sad. And did I hear correctly or did he say “I’m done” at one point in his post-fight interview? He said something like “I can only think about my son. I only took this fight because of him, without him I’m not here. And I’m done”. I think it might be over and I’m half hoping it is. 

The only way I see Francis ever even possibly fighting in the UFC again would be if Turki gets involved and pulls out all the stops to get it done. And maybe that’s what’s gonna happen. That way obviously the money’s there plus Francis and his people wouldn’t have to deal with Dana directly, they can do it through Turki. Or maybe they just all make friends like Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn miraculously did. Money talks. Even then though, I’m assuming the Saudis would have to buy out Ngannou’s PFL contract on top of paying him millions to fight. And then Jones probably scurries off into retirement anyway. So at best we’d only get Ngannou vs Aspinall, which I’d be over the moon with personally but it’s not gonna be the money spinner Ngannou vs Jones would be so fuck knows if old Turki would wanna spend all that coin for it. We’ll see how it all shakes out but if this was it, I’m fine with it. I’d rather see Francis get out now with his money and health intact. He already beat the system.

Cyborg adds yet another belt to her ridiculous collection.

That’s titles in the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Invicta and now PFL. Insane career she’s had and crazy longevity. Started in 2005, has been fairly active consistently throughout a 19 year career, has only lost twice in all that time (one being her debut), found time to compete in Boxing, Muay Thai and grappling matches in amongst her MMA career and has finished 21 of her 28 wins. And here she is at 39 still winning titles and mostly dominating a 5 round fight against a tough opponent in Larissa Pacheco. Despite getting chinned by Amanda Nunes years ago, I think it’s hard not to call Cyborg the GOAT when it comes to womens MMA. It’s a travesty we never got Nunes vs Cyborg 2 back then. Thought the commentary on this fight was shite, to be honest. They seemed well biased towards Pacheco from what I heard but I had Cyborg winning comfortably. At least 3-2 but probably more like 4-1. Enjoyed the fight though. Both showed a lot of toughness. 

Johnny Eblen vs Fabian Edwards legitimately almost put me to sleep. Find Eblen awful to watch. And Fabian’s basically just an inferior version of his brother Leon. My hopes weren’t high, despite how their first fight ended, but somehow they failed to live up to even my low expectations.

Thought Paul Hughes looked class against AJ McKee. This was the fight I was most looking forward to outside the main event but it ended up being pretty much one way traffic. Thought Hughes won clearly, don’t know what the one judge was smoking who scored the fight for McKee.

Really thought Hughes had him there, McKee was saved by the round ending. The big knee Hughes hit him with had him in trouble as well. Overall it was a really strong performance from Hughes over his biggest name opponent yet. Thought McKee looked off in this fight. Don’t know if it was an issue with him or just a case of Hughes making him look bad but it certainly wasn’t the same AJ McKee everyone was clamouring to see in the UFC a couple of years ago. Liked Hughes’ callout of Usman Nurmagomedov as well. That’s the fight. 

 

Didn’t watch the prelims but it was a decent enough show all in all. Although I’m only really saying that because Ngannou won. If he’d lost I’d be a lot more negative right now ?

Edited October 20, 2024 by wandshogun09