The PFL Thread

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, I caught it live too luckily. Special moment.

[Egg Shen]

Don't feel too bad for Dalton Rosta either, he's bagged himself Dakota Ditcheva.

 

[jimufctna24]

Nemkov has just beaten Ferreira pretty easily in the opening round of their bout in France. Other than a brief scramble, where Nemkov ended up on bottom after trying to secure an armbar from full mount, it was a very straight forward night for him. Takedown, full guard, half guard, mount, with lots of ground and pound in between transitions. Nemkov then finished the bout with an arm triangle after regaining top position after the failed armbar.

I assume Nemkov and his camp saw how easily Ngannou beat Ferreira by grappling with him, and how Ferreira had previously stopped Bader with strikes, and decided not to fuck about striking with Ferreira. Nemkov barely threw a strike before attempting a takedown and muscling Ferreira to the mat. 

While I'm glad Nemkov won, I still can't shake the feeliing that he's wasted in the PFL. Him not tangling with the likes of Aspinall, Ngannou, Gane, etc remains very frustrating. 

Edited December 13, 2025 by jimufctna24

[Kfogg1991]

SOMEONE ELSE WATCHED TOO 

Only caught the last two but ecstatic nemkov won and did it in the first aswell Ferreira should have never been in the fight after the Francis fight so for once it went the right way 

 

And Jesus Christ cyborg is not human she is a woman terminator and was made in a basement somewhere she hasn't lost since 2005 and she is 18-1 in her last title flights alone another level I'm not upset she's out the UFC and not against everyone I really like in there 

[jimufctna24]

2 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

SOMEONE ELSE WATCHED TOO 

I only watched Nemkov's fight 😄

[wandshogun09]

10 hours ago, jimufctna24 said:

While I'm glad Nemkov won, I still can't shake the feeliing that he's wasted in the PFL. Him not tangling with the likes of Aspinall, Ngannou, Gane, etc remains very frustrating. 

A glimmer of hope.

I think it’ll happen as well. Ngannou was on Helwani’s show the other day saying his PFL contract is up soon and seemed like he wants to fight and get out of there. The whole thing is weird. Big fan of Francis but it feels like he’s fucked PFL over pretty bad really. They didn’t really get much out of the deal did they? And now he keeps publicly talking about going back to the UFC. It’s like breaking up from an abusive partner, finding someone who goes out of their way to give you everything you want, then telling everyone who will listen that you really wanna go back to your toxic relationship with the ex. He keeps banging on about fighting Jon Jones at the White House but it seems very unlikely based on Dana’s comments about him every time the subject comes up. Whole thing’s a mess.

Just as a fan, ideally I’d love to see him fight Nemkov and then somehow end up back in the UFC to mix it up with Jones and Aspinall if possible. But Dana’s pettiness is gonna put the block on it anyway. And Francis doesn’t help matters when he’s saying he’s got two names he wants to fight - Jon Jones and Deontay Wilder. How’s that gonna work? If hell somehow froze over and Dana relented and Ngannou came back to the UFC, they’re not gonna let him go and box Wilder. So does he think the UFC are gonna sign him to a one fight deal? It’s a complete non starter. Never gonna get off the ground, the UFC don’t do one fight deals and they’re not gonna co-promote Ngannou (who Dana’s already on bad terms with) boxing and most likely losing to a washed up Wilder. There’s no point even sitting down and talking about a UFC return if that’s what Ngannou is gonna demand.

Like I said, big fan of Francis but, as sad as I am to say it, the best result here would probably be if Nemkov beats Ngannou then ends up in the UFC at some point before it’s too late. There isn’t much else in PFL for him really other than this Ngannou fight anyway.

As for Cyborg, yeah, absolute beast. For me she’s the GOAT of women’s MMA. Even despite the loss to Nunes. That’s the one asterisk and it’s a shame we never got a rematch but her overall career and accomplishments are like no other woman in the sport. Titles in the UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce, Invicta and PFL is insane. Apparently she’s retiring from MMA next year. She’s gonna do one more fight and that’s it. That’ll be 21 years in MMA, pretty much all of it at the top of the game. Think she said she’s still gonna do some Boxing fights but next year she’ll be done with MMA.

Saw she mentioned having her last fight against Dakota Ditcheva at 135 though? How? Wasn’t the big obstacle blocking the Ronda Rousey fight all those years ago that Cyborg would literally die if she tried to cut to 135? Now she thinks she’s gonna do it at 40 years old? Not gonna happen is it? Not to mention Ditcheva is a Flyweight. So she’d have to come up in weight, Cyborg would theoretically be coming down. But you know Cyborg isn’t making 135 so what would most likely happen is Cyborg would miss weight badly, come in at like 142lbs or something and Ditcheva would be expected to just take the fight anyway at a massive size disadvantage. Bad idea. As nice an idea as it is in theory as a kind of a potential ‘passing the torch’ fight between the two best women’s fighters outside the UFC, it’s not realistic is it? Would be a disaster if it played out like I’ve said there with Cyborg missing weight. Have the Borg bash up Leah McCourt or something instead. 

[Dai]

After its all said and done, will he even get that much of an improved offer from the UFC at this point? The hype has gone from him completely. All seems a bit odd, as surely the PFL threw a tonne of money at him, so no idea why hes not fought more, even against bums, if it meant he was earning more cash than what he would do even if he fought Tom. Maybe the PFL ended up being just as bad as the UFC, if hes throwing out going back to Dana.

As for the boxing, couldnt he do the fight before he signs for the UFC? Finish with PFL, then do the Wilder fight, then resign with Dana

[wandshogun09]

I think he’s talking about doing the Jones fight first specifically because he wants to do it on the White House card in June. But maybe that’s not a deal breaker and they could flip it and do Wilder first. Thing is, say he goes and gets sparked by Wilder, Dana’s gonna publicly shit all over him again and the chances of him ending up back in the UFC at that point would probably be even slimmer.

I guess one way around the Boxing thing might be this TKO Boxing bollocks Dana’s all over with Turki. Maybe that’s a way they could bring Ngannou back to the UFC and allow him to box but still under their promotional banner. But then they’re gonna want to dip into his money, he won’t make near the coin he’d probably make going the normal route with a different Boxing promoter (not that the Wilder fight is gonna bring him the money the Fury/AJ ones did anyway) and I don’t even know if Wilder would be possible as an opponent then either. It’s messy. And with all this said, I don’t even think the UFC want him back. Dana obviously doesn’t anyway. 

As for why he’s been inactive, maybe part of it is to do with him still dealing with the loss of his son. That happened after the AJ fight and before his PFL fight with Ferreira so maybe that partly explains why he hasn’t been as active as he might’ve initially intended to be when he first signed with PFL. They must feel like they’ve been shafted though. They bent over backwards to give him what he asked for, made him PFL Africa chairman or whatever the title was and he’s seemed to give zero fucks since. I feel like I’m being a bit harsh and should give him the benefit of the doubt given what happened with his son, but aside from blasting through Ferreira over a year ago, he’s not really done anything for PFL since he came on board. Should’ve been the face of the company but he’s almost a forgotten man. 

Edited December 14, 2025 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

Regarding Nemkov and the UFC.

In addition to money, another potential obstacle is apparently Fedor. It's been speculated that relations are still frosty between Fedor and the UFC, and this is hurting Nemkov's chances of entering the UFC.

It's a shame, not just because Nemkov's prime is going to waste, but also because having Fedor walk his "protoge" to the Octagon and corner him would probably generate quite a bit of interest. 

[wandshogun09]

46 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

Regarding Nemkov and the UFC.

In addition to money, another potential obstacle is apparently Fedor. It's been speculated that relations are still frosty between Fedor and the UFC, and this is hurting Nemkov's chances of entering the UFC.

It’s all Dana’s fault. I don’t doubt Fedor’s side were difficult to deal with in those much publicised negotiations back in 2009, but the common denominator in all these stories is Dana. He’s literally the only person in the sport who Fedor actually seems to dislike, which says a lot considering how chilled and emotionless he’s been as long as we’ve been following. There are always two sides to these things and I’m not saying the fighters or their managers are angels but Dana’s such a fucking prick we’ve missed out on so many big fights and moments over the years, seemingly as a direct result of him not personally liking someone. He said as much about Ngannou recently. That he’s not interested in bringing him back because he doesn’t like him. So forget the good of the sport or what fans might want. It’s all about one man. Fuck, even Vince McMahon as big a horrible cunt as we now know he was, when it came to doing business he’d put his personal grudges aside if it meant making money. The list goes on and on of names Dana’s been at odds with over the years and he can never just be normal about it, it has to get personal. 

It actually makes me laugh how he’s held up as some genius master promoter these days. I could swear the story was that he was going nowhere before he lucked into reconnecting with the Fertittas at a school reunion. They took him out of teaching Boxercise to housewives in Boston and brought him along for the ride. Granted he put the hours in when the sport was growing but I don’t know what the fuck he actually does anymore. He seems to hate everything and everybody to do with MMA now, shits on half the fighters he’s meant to be promoting, is a hinderance or outright blocks certain fighters from signing and he’s not needed when it comes to matchmaking at all because Hunter Campbell and Sean Shelby take care of that. What is he? He’s not even a good mouthpiece/face of the UFC now because he just sits up there all angry about everything. Yet he said recently that he just extended his contract for another five years.

[jimufctna24]

@wandshogun09

Fedor has fallen out with a lot of people in MMA over the years. As examples, his brother (understandably), RTT in the 2000s (probably justified), and he also cut ties with pretty much all of his associates (advisors, press security, etc) prior to his comeback in the mid 2010s (bar Jerry Millen sadly).

Still, I agree with you point overall. Dana has seemingly never got over that day in 2009 where negotiations broke down with Fedor's camp. I believe there were also talks between the two parties in 2016, but Fedor then randomly showed up at a Bellator show, and any potential deal was nixed. I can imagine that only made Dana fume further.

Edited December 14, 2025 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

Worth bumping for this. PFL back Saturday, the first show under this new restructure, no tournaments, no points. Just fights rankings, really as it should be.

Alfie Davis in a bit of an impossible task main event, Nurmagamedov is a 1/20 favorite. Might be the widest odds ever for a mens World Title fight.

Some solid stuff across the card though. On DAZN over here.

 

[Kfogg1991]

Yeah I'll be watching this one it's a strong main card but jesus this company have dropped like a stone, there's no excitement or real buzz for any of there shows anymore which isn't surprising given the last 12 months or so.

Also running shows once every two months or so is a bad idea and isn't helping the company's chances of growing. 

They have the Madrid show very soon first MMA company to do a show there and you would only know if you actually follow the company already.

I hate saying this but I think they will close by the end of the year which leaves so many top fighters out of a big stage to perform.

Just look at how they handled having Francis it says it all 

[jimufctna24]

8 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Also running shows once every two months or so is a bad idea and isn't helping the company's chances of growing. 

The alternative to this would be running diluted shows every few weeks like Bellator used to do.

It's not a viewer-friendly route, especially for a second tier promotion with a small pool of world class talent. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah they just don’t have the roster depth to run more shows than they do. It does seem like they might be circling the drain a bit now though. Chairman/founder of PFL Donn Davis recently left and I believe Jake Paul too, not that he did fuck all for them anyway. Then you’ve got Francis Ngannou publicly telling people he wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC or Deontay Wilder in Boxing, while still under contract with PFL. It’s not a great sign, might be completely off base but from the outside it kind of seems like everyone’s trying to jump off a sinking ship.