Eddie Mercado & Victor M. Rodriguez are here to recap the PFL 2018 Championship event from December, 31st, 2018.
Welcome to the 6th Round Retro Post-Fight Show. This is the show that digs into the archives and gives you a comprehensive review of classic MMA events, that span as far back as UFC 1.
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June M. Williams
Join Eddie Mercado & Victor Rodriguez as they delve into the world of the PFL (Professional Fighter’s League) 2018 Championship Event this week, straight out of the archives of yesteryear. So let’s take a trip back to Monday, December 31, 2018.
The guys will explore the inaugural championship mixed martial arts event for the 2018 season of the Professional Fighters League, entitled: ‘PFL 2018 Championship’, aka: ‘PFL 11’ – complete with results, analysis, and of course a few laughs. The event was broadcast live on New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2018) as mentioned, LIVE from the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
For those of you not in the know, the PFL is the first major MMA organization in which individual athletes compete in a regular season, post-season and championship, rather than on a year-round basis; putting on fights across six weight-divisions: featherweight, women’s lightweight, lightweight, welterweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. These events are held within a ten-sided MMA cage known as the ‘SmartCage’, adhering to the unified rules of MMA, with the exception of prohibiting any elbow strikes. For more on their Fight Format and Point System, which determines the championship series outcomes, read here.
The event was the eleventh and final event of the 2018 season. Each champion in the six weight classes was crowned and won a championship prize of $1 million each. For this debut season they opened the fighter pool at the beginning of the season with 72 fighters across their six weight-classes, competing in seven regular season events. The top eight in each division squared off in single elimination, bracket-style playoff fights.
Commentators for this final championship card included: Todd Harris, the legendary Bas Ruten & the equally legendary Randy Couture. Harris provided play-by-play, while Couture provided color commentary, and Rutten conducted the pre- & post-fight interviews. The season aired on NBC Sports Group and streamed on Facebook that year, later going on to partner with ESPN.
Overall, we had a total of seven bouts, with five of them ending in finishes, resulting in six new millionaires (prior to taxes, of course), and including one two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in her third MMA fight. The event had TV Ratings averaging 204,000 viewers.
If you would like to watch the event, it can be found in the PFL Archives in one viewing from their website; or you can also search for each bout via the Official PFL YouTube Channel under the names of the fighters of each bout, one video per bout is likely out there across the interwebs, so some hunting would need to be done to look up the card in its entirety off of platforms other than PFL directly.
Join us to rediscover all the action and discuss as we go along! Let’s check it out!
TIMESTAMPS:
- 0:00 INTRO
- 1:49 Segue into the Event
- 7:38 Event Details
- 9:21 Taylor vs Magomedov
- 17:52 Palmer vs Siler
- 24:16 Schulte vs. Magomedov
- 29:30 Harrison vs. Charneski
- 35:56 O’Connell vs. Magalhães
- 40:59 Lins vs. Copeland
- 45:55 Magomedkerimov vs. Cooper III
- 50:31 Event Recap
(SPOILERS)
The fight card was set up as follows, via tapology.com:
PFL Welterweight Championship
7. Magomed Magomedkerimov (23-5) Def. Ray Cooper III (17-6) – Sub (guillotine choke) 2:18 of Round 2
PFL Heavyweight Championship
6. Philipe Lins (14-3) Def. Josh Copeland (18-6) – TKO (knees & punches) 0:30 of Round 4 of 5
PFL Light Heavyweight Championship
5. Sean O’Connell (21-10) Def. Vinny Magalhães (18-10) – TKO (corner stoppage followed by Retirement) 5:00 of Round 3 of 5
PFL Women’s Lightweight Championship
4. Kayla Harrison (3-0) Def. Moriel Charneski (3-5) TKO (punches) 3:39 of Round 1 of 3
PFL Lightweight Championship
3. Natan Schulte (15-3) Def. Rashid Magomedov (22-3) – Dec (unanimous) (48-46, 48-46, 48-46) – 5 Rounds
PFL Featherweight Championship
2. Lance Palmer (17-3) Def. Steven Siler (32-17) – Dec (unanimous) (50-43, 50-45, 49-46) – 5 Rounds
PFL Middleweight Championship
- Louis ‘Put the Guns Down’ Taylor (18-4) Def. Abusupiyan Magomedov (22-4) – KO (punch) 0:33 of Round 1 of 5
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