Issue 200
December 2023
Simon Head jumps into the Fighters Only wayback machine to recap the best of mixed martial arts in November.
PFL builds ‘global powerhouse’
It was a November to remember for the PFL as they made big waves in the MMA world by announcing their acquisition of Bellator, then brought the curtain down on their global season by crowning six million-dollar champions at the 2023 season finale in Washington DC.
The acquisition of Bellator was the biggest win of the month, however, as the PFL, through a stock-only deal, added more than 200 fighters to their roster, and co-founder Donn Davis explained that the promotion would run a number of different franchises, with Bellator being one of them.
In addition to the PFL’s US-based global season and international seasons for Europe, Africa and others, the PFL will be launching its pay-per-view Super Fights events in 2024, with standalone Bellator events also set to form part of the organization’s calendar for the year.
Also promised was a “PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions” event, likely in early-2024, where the newly-crowned PFL champions are set to face off against their Bellator equivalents.
PFL champions crowned in Washington DC
Speaking of those PFL champions, we saw six PFL champions crowned at the 2023 PFL Championships in Washington DC, as the PFL handed out six million-dollar checks to bring the curtain down on their latest season.
Top of the pile was undoubtedly Larissa Pacheco. The Brazilian had caused a huge shock in the 2022 finals when she defeated Kayla Harrison to capture the women’s lightweight crown. For 2023, Pacheco dropped down to 145 pounds and ran the table once again to become a back-to-back champion.
Pacheco’s accomplishment, winning titles in two different weight classes, made PFL history and puts her right at the very top of the sport. With Bellator’s women’s 145-pound division being absorbed into the PFL roster for 2024, there should be no shortage of fresh challenges for Pacheco next year, but two bouts stand out – a champion-versus-champion matchup with Bellator featherweight queen and all-time great Cris Cyborg, and a rematch with Harrison.
The main event of the season finale saw “The Canadian Gangster” Olivier Aubin-Mercier claim back-to-back lightweight titles, thanks to a unanimous decision victory over Clay Collard, before announcing his plan to take a break from the sport.
Retirement looks likely for “OAM,” but if he fancied one or two final matchups to bolster his bank account before walking away for good, the likes of Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexander Shabliy could be potential options.
Another fighter who could be thrust into the spotlight in 2024 is newly-crowned heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira. After receiving a reprieve after his regular season defeat to Rizvan Kuniev was wiped out due to his opponent’s failed drug test. That gave “Problema” a second chance at glory, and knockouts of Matheus Scheffel, Maurice Greene and, in the final, Denis Goltsov saw him capture the million-dollar title.
But an even bigger payday could be around the corner, with Ferreira now being linked as a potential MMA option for Francis Ngannou next year. At the time of writing, the PFL seems all-in on the idea of booking a mixed-rules matchup between Ngannou and former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. But, if negotiations collapse, a bout between “The Predator” and “Problema” might offer a viable alternative.
The PFL’s other championship winners on the night included welterweight Magomed Magomedkerimov, light heavyweight Impa Kasanganay, and featherweight Jesus Pinedo. The latter two both came up through the PFL’s Challenger Series to earn their spot in the global season, then beat the odds to make it all the way to the championship in their respective weight classes.
Pereira and Aspinall’s big night in ‘The Big Apple’
UFC events at Madison Square Garden are always special, but when news of Jon Jones’ training injury broke, fans were left saddened at the loss of “Bones” heavyweight title defense against UFC heavyweight all-time great Stipe Miocic. But the bouts at the top of the fight card in New York made sure those fans who showed up at “The Garden” were treated to a night to remember.
The main event saw former middleweight champ Alex Pereira stop Jiri Prochazka to capture the vacant light heavyweight crown. Some questioned the speed of referee Marc Goddard’s intervention, but that group didn’t include Prochazka himself, who said the official made the right call to stop the fight when he did. For Pereira, it meant he became a two-division world champion after just seven fights in the UFC. A truly incredible achievement.
With the loss of Jones-Miocic, the UFC moved quickly to install an interim heavyweight title fight on the card, with Russia’s Sergei Pavlovich stepping up from backup fighter duties to take on England’s Tom Aspinall, who agreed to step in on two weeks’ notice for the biggest opportunity of his career.
Pavlovich was portrayed all week as a terrifying presence, but Aspinall took fight week in his stride, raised a few laughs along the way, then left Madison Square Garden crowd open-mouthed in amazement as he knocked out Pavlovich in just 69 seconds to become only the third UK fighter to capture a UFC title. It also made another piece of history for UK MMA, with Aspinall’s win giving the UK two UFC champions at the same time, for the first time ever, as he joined welterweight champ Leon Edwards on top of the MMA world.
Elsewhere in the UFC, middleweight contender Brendan Allen delivered a statement-making performance as he submitted Paul Craig at the UFC Apex to push himself towards the division’s top contenders at 185 pounds, while heavyweight contender Jailton Almeida labored to a solid, if unspectacular, win over Derrick Lewis in Sao Paulo. The bout looked to be lined up to be Almeida’s coming out party, but his dominant decision win still left question marks over the Brazilian at the very highest level. He’ll look to answer them emphatically in early 2024.
The end of an era for Bellator
Before the promotion’s acquisition by the PFL, the month also saw Bellator hold its final event prior to the merger, with Bellator 301 producing a pair of emphatic title changes.
The co-main event saw interim champion and Grand Prix winner Patchy Mix complete a full house of Bellator belts by dethroning Sergio Pettis via first-round rear-naked choke, while the headline bout saw longtime contender Jason Jackson become the first man to defeat Ukrainian world champion Yaroslav Amosov for the welterweight title.
Amosov was 27-0, and looking close to unbeatable inside the Bellator cage. But, true to his fighting moniker, “The Ass-Kicking Machine” Jackson imposed his will, and his punch power, on the champion as he finished his man with punches to capture championship gold at 170 pounds, and a champion-versus-champion bout with PFL champ Magomed Magomedkerimov in 2024.
Bellator staff have reportedly been offered the opportunity to continue as part of the new PFL setup, but it remains to be seen if that family atmosphere fostered by Scott Coker and his small but dedicated team will translate to the larger PFL organization moving forward.
Elsewhere, Brave Combat Federation continued its international calendar with a show in Indonesia that only required the services of the judges for the first bout of the night. The remaining 10 bouts all finished inside the distance, as the promotion served up a feast of finishes in Jakarta.
Across the pond…
In Europe, Czech-Slovak promotion Oktagon MMA continued to prosper as it made its first foray into the UK, then delivered a home-run event in Germany.
Oktagon 48 served up a fun night of fights for the fans at the AO Arena in Manchester, with the reality TV shows, Stage to the Cage and Oktagon Challenge: England vs. Ireland helping to create a compelling card of fights that had the fans invested from the first bout of the night to the last. The choice of the UK’s largest arena for their first show was definitely a stretch, but Oktagon’s co-founders Pavol Neruda and Ondrej Novotny telling Fighters Only that they had learned a lot from their first trip to the UK, and they are already looking forward to returning, with four shows planned for 2024, starting in Newcastle in January.
While they look to establish a foothold in the UK, Oktagon have already become a must-see attraction in Germany, and their November event, Oktagon 49, in Cologne produced a slam-dunk success for the promotion.
A sold-out crowd of 19,000 packed the Lanxess Arena to register the largest crowd in German MMA history, and a German fighter was crowned heavyweight champion in the main event. Hatef Moeil edged out Bulgaria’s Lazar Todev to claim the belt, but even the home fans were unsure of the judges’ call. Expect the pair to run it back in 2024.
The gold standard of European MMA, Cage Warriors held two action-packed events during the month, as they played to packed houses in London and Newcastle.
Cage Warriors 163 London saw a new welterweight champion crowned, as Greek contender Giannis Bachar knocked out fancied KO artist Omiel Brown to claim the 170-pound title, while at Cage Warriors 164 in Newcastle, England’s Liam Gittins captured the vacant bantamweight title with a strong performance outpoint Scotland’s Reece McEwan, while Italy’s Dario Bellandi dethroned England’s Mick Stanton over five rounds to claim the middleweight crown.
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