The tournament series returns to Atlantic City with Olympian Kayla Harrison looking to right some wrongs.
PFL graces our screens again this week, with a set of men’s welterweights and women’s lightweights.
The ongoing tournament has led to some compelling matchups, particularly in the welterweight division, where former Contender Series standout Chris Curtis (21-5) will test himself against dogged Dagestani grappler Magomed Magomedkerimov, who is also an adept striker in his own right. You may also remember that Magomedkerimov won the tournament last year and had some truly dominant performances along the way. Curtis is a wily veteran with great striking, good power and excellent finishing instincts, and will present a very interesting challenge here for the Russian.
Also of interest is the return of Olympic champion Kayla Harrison (4-0), who was immensely dissatisfied with her last performance, a decision win last month over Larissa Pacheco. Now she’ll be looking to focus that frustration against Morgan Frier (4-2). Former Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman (21-4) was set to meet Roberta Paim Samad (5-1), but Samad unfortunately missed weight. Now Kaufman nets three points and gets paid her show and win money as a result since the bout was cancelled.
Last year’s almost-Cinderella story didn’t exactly happen for Ray Cooper III, despite his massive upsets of Jake Shields (remember, he beat him up twice) last year. After losing in the finals to Magomedkerimov, he kicked off this year’s tourney by beating his own cousin Zane Kamaka. Now he’ll be up against former UFC talent John “Doomsday“ Howard. This should be a battle of attrition, one in which the veteran Howard won’t be afraid to trade bombs with the tenacious Hawaiian. Incidentally, Kamaka missed weight yet again and has been disqualified from the season, and three points have been awarded to Andre Fialho.
Former UFC fighter David Michaud (15-5) has finally found a new home in the PFL cage after jumping around a bit, and had an unfortunate debut loss to former middleweight Sadibou Sy. This time around, his focus will be on Pitbull Brothers alum Handesson Ferreira (14-2, 1 draw), who injured Rick Story’s arm last year with an armbar.
Speaking of Sy (8-4, 1 draw), he’s up against Brazilian submission threat and former UFC fighter Glaico França (20-5). Former UFC fighter Bojan Velickovic (16-9, 2 draws) aims to break out of his current slump that include three losses and a draw as he faces crafty Brazilian finisher João Zeferino (23-9).
After losing two fights due to weight mishaps, card is as follows:
Chris Curtis vs Magomed Magomedkerimov – Welterweight
Kayla Harrison vs Morgan Frier – Lightweight
Ray Cooper III vs John “Doomsday” Howard – Welterweight
Glaico França vs Sadibou Sy – Welterweight
Handesson Ferreira vs David Michaud – Welterweight
Larissa Pacheco vs Bobbi-Jo Dalziel – Lightweight
Genah Fabian vs Moriel Charneski – Lightweight
João Zeferino vs Bojan Velickovic – Welterweight
PFL 2019 #4 begins on Thursday afternoon at 5:30 PM ET, with prelims on ESPN+ and the main card on ESPN2 at 8:30 PM ET.