Watch and discuss the welterweight and middleweight $1 million tournaments for the Professional Fighters League, starting at 7:15 PM ET/4:15 PM PT on Saturday, October 20th.
The final round of playoff matchups to determine who will compete for the $1 million grand prizes in the Professional Fighters League is here. Tonight (Saturday, October 20th) from Washington DC, the welterweights and middleweights take center stage, as the eight competitors in each weight class have to win the quarterfinal and semifinal bouts on the same night in order to advance to the final.
At welterweight, #1 seed Ray Cooper has been one of the stories of the inaugural PFL season. He’ll be rematching #8 seed Jake Shields, who was viciously beaten up and stopped by Cooper in the regular season. As for middleweight, Abus Magomedov is the top dog in his division, and his quarterfinal opponent is UFC veteran, the #8 seeded Gasan Umalatov. Also of note is that Abubakar Nurmagomedov, the cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov, is an injury fill-in for #2 seed Joao Zeferino, so he’ll be fighting Bojan Velickovic in the welterweight quarters. At middleweight, Eddie Gordon is replacing #3 seed Shamil Gamzatov, so Gordon takes on #6 seed John Howard.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for two-rounds and the semifinals are three-rounds. In the event of a draw in the quarterfinals, the tiebreaker is whichever fighter won the first-round. Full tiebreaker rules can be seen here.
You can watch PFL 10 at 7:15 PM ET on Facebook Watch, followed by the remaining bouts on the NBC Sports Network main card at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT.
Here’s the fight lineup:
Main Card (9 PM ET, NBC SN)
Abusupiyan Magomedov def. Sadibou Sy via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) – Middleweight semifinals
Ray Cooper III def. Handesson Ferreira by TKO (punches) at 2:28 of round 1 – Welterweight semifinals
Louis Taylor def. John Howard by first-round tiebreaker after technical draw due to illegal knee strike by Taylor – Middleweight semifinals
Magomed Magomedkerimov def. Bojan Velickovic via TKO (punches) at 3:13 of round 2 – Welterweight semifinals
#1 Abus Magomedov def. #8 Gasan Umalatov by first-round tiebreaker after majority draw (20-18, 19-19, 19-19) – Middleweight quarterfinals
#1 Ray Cooper III def. #8 Jake Shields by TKO (punches) at 3:10 of round 1 – Welterweight quarterfinals
#5 Sadibou Sy def. #4 Bruno Santos by first-round tiebreaker after fight ends in majority draw (20-18, 19-19, 19-19) – Middleweight quarterfinals
#5 Handesson Ferreira def. #4 Rick Story by verbal submission (injury) at 1:15 of round 2 – Welterweight quarterfinals
Preliminary Card (7:15 PM ET, Facebook)
#6 John Howard def. #3 Eddie Gordon by unanimous decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-18) – Middleweight quarterfinals
#3 Magomed Magomedkerimov def. #6 Pavlo Kusch by unanimous decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-18) – Welterweight quarterfinals
#2 Louis Taylor def. #7 Rex Harris by unanimous decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-18) – Middleweight quarterfinals
#2 Abubakar Nurmagomedov def. #7 Bojan Velickovic by first-round tiebreaker after unanimous draw (19-19, 19-19, 19-19), but Nurmagomedov pulls out with hand injury – Welterweight quarterfinals