Friday's PFL featherweight semifinal between Brendan Loughnane and Movlid Khaybulaev isn't a $1 million fight, but it has a championship feeling to it.
Loughnane is eager to sweep his infamous appearance on Dana White's Contender Series in 2019, in which he won but didn't close out the fight seeking a finish, into the footnotes of his career with a PFL championship victory. He has won both of his fights in the PFL regular season, opening with a quick knockout of UFC veteran Sheymon Moraes in April, and locked up the No. 1 seed.
The fourth-seeded Khaybulaev finished the regular season 2-0 as well, capping it off with a victory over Lance Palmer in June that eliminated the two-time PFL champion from playoff contention. The win made Khaybulaev 17-0-1 for his career.
The Loughnane-Khaybulaev clash headlines the last of three PFL semifinal cards at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida (Live on ESPN2/ESPN+), and also features another 145-pound semifinal as well as two light heavyweight semis on the main card.
At featherweight, No. 2 seed Chris Wade faces third-seeded Bubba Jenkins. The 205-pound semifinals pit top seed Antonio Carlos Jr. against 2019 PFL champion (and No. 4 seed) Emiliano Sordi, while No. 2 seed Cezar Ferreira faces No. 3 Marthin Hamlet.
Prior to the four playoff semifinals, there are six prelims featuring a mix of fighters from the 2021 season and some PFL newcomers.
Follow along throughout the night for instant analysis.
Fight in progress: Light heavyweight semifinal: Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Emiliano Sordi
Light heavyweight semifinal: Marthin Hamlet def. Cezar Ferreira by first-round TKO (referee stoppage, injury)
After an hour between fights in the leadup to the first PFL playoff semifinal of the night getting into the cage, it took just 13 seconds for that fight to end.
In the very first exchange, Ferreira threw a left kick that connected to the body, and immediately grabbed the back of his other leg and fell backward to the canvas, with an apparent hamstring injury.
Hamlet moved in looking to rain down punches, but referee Larry Folsom was right there to jump in and end the bout.
That gave Hamlet, who is 29 and from Norway, his third win in his last four fights and sent him into the final against the winner of the Antonio Carlos Junior-Emiliano Sordi fight, which was set to immediate follow this bout.
Afterward, Hamlet acknowledged that this was not the way he wanted to earn his spot in the final, but he looked at the big picture. "Every person has a destiny," he said, "so maybe this is my destiny."
Ferreira, a 36-year-old Brazilian, has lost four of his last five.
Featherweights: Sheymon Moraes def. Lazar Stojadinovic by second-round TKO
Both men threw big punches at the exact same time in the final seconds of Round 2. Both appeared to land. But as Moraes stood firm, Stojadinovic staggered backward, then fell to the canvas. Moraes pounced on his opponent with punches, Stojadinovic covered up without returning fire, and that was all referee Keith Peterson needed to see before jumping in to wave off the bout at 4:45.
Moraes, a 36-year-old Brazilian, has won two in a row after dropping three straight. Both of the victories came in tightly contested, back-and-forth fights that ended suddenly.
Stojadinovic, who is 32 and from Miami, lost his second in a row.
Light heavyweights: Chris Camozzi def. Cory Hendricks by unanimous decision
There was nothing flashy about Camozzi, but his steady flow of striking and his defensive wrestling got the job done and earned him his second straight victory.
The 34-year-old from Lakewood, Colorado, landed three times as many strikes as Hendricks, and while Camozzi never had his opponent in deep trouble, he led the dance from start to finish, earning 30-27 scores from two judges and a 29-28 edge from the other.
Hendricks, who is 33 and from Washington, saw a two-fight winning streak come to an end.
Featherweights: Anthony Dizy def. Jesse Stirn by unanimous decision
Stirn moved to his left. Stirn moved to his right. Standing right in front of him, patiently, was Dizy who, when his moments came. landed a punch on Stirn, took his opponent to the canvas or locked him up in a clinch.
It wasn't pretty, but the 33-year-old Frenchman was the more effective fighter and got the nod from all three judges by 29-28 scores.
While Stirn covered more mileage inside the cage, Dizy was the busier man in terms of producing offense, and that gave him his third win in his past four fights. Both Dizy and Stirn lost their PFL regular-season finales, setting up this consolation bout.
Featherweights: Bobby Moffett def. Jason Knight by unanimous decision
Ahead of his return to the cage on Friday, Knight had detoured to bare-knuckle fighting in recent years -- but his game is submission fighting, with 15 of his 22 victories coming by tapout. Early on in this fight, he threatened to add to that total by clamping an inverted triangle on Moffett.
But Moffett has never been submitted, and his defense held strong. That was especially true at the start of Round 3, when Knight tried to take the fight to the canvas and ended up being smothered by Moffett for most of the rest of the fight -- and that ultimately decided the outcome.
All three judges scored the bout 29-28 in favor of Moffett, a 31-year-old from Homewood, Illinois.
Featherweights: Alejandro Flores def. Carl Deaton by split decision
It was a largely uneventful 15 minutes, and often that type of fight is decided by whatever big moments the judges can hang their scorecards on. In this case, though, while Flores had to overcome a pair of flash knockdowns, he was the busier fighter, and his movement dictated how the fight played out.
All three judges scored it 29-28, with two of them favoring the 30-year-old Flores, who is from Mexico and has won three in a row.
Deaton, who is 31 and from Michigan, but trains in Las Vegas, did floor Flores twice in Round 2, but did little else over the rest of the three-round fight but stalk his opponent as he lost his second fight in a row.
Brandon Jenkins def. Jacob Kilburn by first-round KO
Nicknames in sports, mixed martial arts in particular, often are fueled by hyperbole. That is not the case with Jenkins, at least not on this night. The 29-year-old from Las Vegas lived up to his "Human Highlight Reel" nickname with a flying knee that flattened Kilburn at 2:56 of Round 1 in the opening fight on the card.
For Jenkins, who was making his PFL debut, it was the 12th stoppage in 14 career wins, and his sixth first-round finish.
Still to come:
Live on ESPN2/ESPN+
Featherweights: Brendan Loughnane vs. Movlid Khaybulaev
Featherweights: Chris Wade vs. Bubba Jenkins
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