The PFL Thread

[TibBo]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

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. 

 

I thought exactly the same matey! Started to doubt whether I was being biased towards Cyborg because I wasn’t seeing anything of what they were saying, and had Cyborg winning 1/2/4 going into the 5th round…

Dan Hardy seemed to confuse aimlessly walking forwards with cage control and it all just seemed oddly biased. Then when the stats came up at the end showing Cyborg had landed more strikes/takedowns/everything, none of them said a word.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it was odd. And although I’m not a big fan of Hardy’s commentating, he’s better than that. His fight breakdowns and analysis are usually really good and obviously he’s been in there himself. He knows what’s what but I was baffled at some of his commentary last night. I get that commentating and scoring a fight don’t always go hand in hand but to be seeing a fight that differently was odd. Seemed like a fell into the old Rogan trap of focusing on what one fighter was doing (in this case Pacheco) and becoming blind to the other fighter and the fight as a whole. 

[Kfogg1991]

I think this is a undoubtedly perfect example of something on paper that screamed must watch/important for the company but ended with more negatives/disappointment with unacceptable mistakes throughout.

Starting with the near hour and a half from the start of the show to the first fight being a stand and attempt to get ppv buys like it was QVC shopping. This wasn't a card that you can push and hype up like they did because while there were more than the main event on it...it wasn't UFC 300 FFS. It was relentless and having Brett Yamamoto standing outside of Francis dressing room but openly admitting be wasn't in the friggin building....why are you there then....

The prelims were very meh 

Paul Hughes stepping up against AJ McKee was outstanding and he has shown he is no joke.

The Fabian Edwards fight was embarrassingly bad for a title but come the end it didn't do anything good for the championship or division if your a new player watching just because it's Francis.

The cyborg fight I dunno I think I would have been okay with a draw but don't think I gave it to cyborg four rounds... definitely not.

Francis is a scary man and that was a great way to show it ground and pound not standing up looking like he's lost all MMA game because of the boxing.

 

It's a shame and it had me crying at the end.

 

[Egg Shen]

7 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

 Brett Yamamoto 

[wandshogun09]

KID Okamoto. 

[Egg Shen]

The card in all was a bit flat, highlights were clearly Hughes, Cyborg/Pacheco and Ngannou.

The prelims were completely missable, not a great advert for the PPV.

Paul Hughes dominated McKee. Dunno if it was just me but I got the impression early that McKee's heart wasn't in it. Maybe he took Hughes too lightly? Like wand. said, he just seemed off. Hughes winning was best case scenario for the PFL though, he has something about him.

Cyborg/Pacheco threatened to be a classic but never quite got there. Cyborg's resume is ridiculous. These 2 might as well fight again, who else is there?

Francis took the path of least resistance. For whatever reason, id never even considered it going in. Impossible not to feel for the big man at the end though, what a scene.

Eblen/Edwards almost derailed the whole thing. That was a slog. I put the blame on Edwards, I think there's great fights in Johnny Eblen, you just gotta be able to drag him into one. Fabian (like Leon) just seems to fight within himself, no urgency, no fire. Round 5 showed what he's capable of. Just not enough.

 

[Dai]

I think it was Meltzer who said this only did 10k buys. Good in Francis for getting that money, but that number surely will just reinforce Danas negotiating with the big stars. 

[Egg Shen]

Yeah shocking numbers if true

[wandshogun09]

The sad fact is nobody outside the UFC is drawing on PPV these days. And I’m not even sure the UFC do monster numbers these days. I never check and thankfully the ‘PPV buys’ talk largely died out when Conor’s in cage career went to shit. All these promotions trying PPV never works though. In this day and age, a lot of fans are having to pick and choose which PPVs to buy from the UFC and/or Boxing on a monthly basis. Good luck trying to get a piece of that pie as a relatively unknown brand like PFL, or Bellator previously. Illegal streaming is booming. I’d imagine PFL did decent numbers on dodgy streams but we’ll never know ?

[wandshogun09]

Some fight this.

 

[Egg Shen]

Lovely stuff. Don't fancy Hughes' chances but I love that they've rolled the dice on it.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah no messing about. Favouring Usman as well but it’s about as good a fight as can be made outside the UFC at the moment. It’s a shame all anyone’s gonna talk about is the stuff about Khabib and McGregor possibly being in the opposing corners. 

[Egg Shen]

Whilst on the subject of the PFL, the World Championships show is next weekend, card is here:

The main card and early showcase card are smashing.

[Egg Shen]

A note on this show, it has the potential to be the longest MMA show of all time. 16 fights and 10 scheduled 5 rounders, pretty absurd. The PFL has the format all wrong, but it just feels like they are cramming 2 shows into one using Saudi's backing. It'll be a right slog live, but with the use of a fast forward button it should be bearable.

[wandshogun09]

Didn’t watch all of Friday’s show but caught Dakota Ditcheva dismantling Taila Santos with body shots…

Big win for her. Her toughest test yet on paper and she passed with flying colours. Very impressive as well when you consider Santos arguably beat Valentina Shevchenko and should’ve been UFC champion a couple of years ago. They’ve got something with Ditcheva, just a shame she’s in PFL and won’t get the shine she deserves.

Shite to see Brendan Loughnane lost a shutout and Impa Kasanganay got done in a minute.