Tag: WSOF

Kayla Harrison Calls PFL Title ‘Her Fourth Kid’

PFL women’s lightweight Kayla Harrison continues to rack up the gold. Harrison won the title following a dominant unanimous decision victory over Larissa Pacheco in the PFL Finals on New Year’s Eve. It now goes along with her other career achievements which include two Olympic gold medals in judo as well as a judo world […]

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PFL women’s lightweight Kayla Harrison continues to rack up the gold.

Harrison won the title following a dominant unanimous decision victory over Larissa Pacheco in the PFL Finals on New Year’s Eve. It now goes along with her other career achievements which include two Olympic gold medals in judo as well as a judo world championship.

That is why she is viewing her PFL title as her fourth kid:

“Well, I won two Olympic gold medals so those are my first two kids,” Harrison told MMA Junkie. “I have a championship gold medal, so that’s maybe my third baby, so this is maybe my fourth kid.”

Having already claimed to be the highest-paid female fighter in the sport, Harrison also walked away with a check for $1 million for her efforts.

Given everything that led to this point, she is satisfied with the results:

“It’s the end of the year, I learned a lot about myself in this fight, I learned a lot about fighting in this fight, and I also got a beautiful payday and live a truly blessed life,” Harrison added. “More important than anything is I got to touch gold again and got to taste gold and become a world champion again.

“It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t necessarily, pretty but life is not always pretty and I’m happy with the result.”

What do you think of Harrison’s success in the sport?

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Rory MacDonald Not Ruling Out Douglas Lima Trilogy

Despite signing for the PFL, Rory MacDonald still believes a trilogy fight with Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima is possible. MacDonald ended his tenure with Bellator when he recently signed with the PFL last month. His last fight was a rematch with Lima where he lost his 170-pound strap following a unanimous decision defeat. The […]

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Despite signing for the PFL, Rory MacDonald still believes a trilogy fight with Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima is possible.

MacDonald ended his tenure with Bellator when he recently signed with the PFL last month. His last fight was a rematch with Lima where he lost his 170-pound strap following a unanimous decision defeat.

The Canadian notably won the welterweight title after outpointing Lima in 2018. And he refuses to rule out a trilogy despite both of them now competing for different promotions.

“It is what it is, you know?” MacDonald told MMA Junkie. “Who’s to say we won’t meet up later down the road? We’re not in the same organization at the moment, but I still see myself fighting for a long time, and maybe he is too.

“You never know where our paths cross again. I don’t worry about it too much. Competition, he won one, I won one, c’est la vie. On to the next.”

MacDonald shocked many when he decided to sign with the PFL where he will now compete in the 2020 welterweight season. He was initially expected to re-sign with Bellator following the end of his contract and face Lima in a potential trilogy fight soon after.

However, “Red King” decided to test the market and is ultimately happy with his decision:

“Bellator had the opportunity to, you know, not have me as a free agent,” MacDonald added. “But I think just between this organization and wanting to take the risk on free agency, there was discussion, and obviously Bellator, they had their interest.

“But when it came time that I was able to talk to other promotions, I wanted to play the field. I wanted to see what options were out there, and the best option out for me was PFL.”

Do you think we’ll see the trilogy fight in the future?

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PFL Prepares To Cut Half Its Roster In 2020

The PFL concludes its 2019 season in just a few hours. And combat sports fans can expect wholesale changes afterward. The PFL Finals take place Tuesday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. After that, the promotion will brace itself for the 2020 season. One big addition already has been […]

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The PFL concludes its 2019 season in just a few hours. And combat sports fans can expect wholesale changes afterward.

The PFL Finals take place Tuesday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. After that, the promotion will brace itself for the 2020 season.

One big addition already has been the arrival of former Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. But fans can expect even more new faces as PFL CEO Peter Murray plans on cutting half the roster — mainly fighters who failed to make the postseason — to freshen things up:

“At this point in time we don’t expect to make any changes in weight classes for next season,” Murray told Sherdog.com. “As it relates to the roster itself, 50 percent of the roster will be turned over and we’ll be bringing in new athletes.

“Our view is next level. The athletes that have earned their way into the postseason pretty much get that right and the option to continue. The top performers will continue with the league, and others, we were proud to have them, but we think it’s time to replace them and bring in some new talent to freshen things up. That’s what you’ll see.”

The PFL has been a success ever since their rebranding in 2018 and the adoption of their unique regular season and playoff system.

And as things stand, the main priority right now is talent:

“The No. 1 goal going into next year is to elevate the roster,” Murray added. “Now that we have two years under our belt, I would say in terms of top priority for us, it’s talent.”

With MacDonald at the helm, they’re already off to a good start ahead of 2020.

What do you think of the PFL bringing in new faces?

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Rory MacDonald Craving More Active Fight Schedule With PFL

Rory MacDonald is relishing the opportunity to become a more active fighter. The former Bellator welterweight champion recently signed with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) earlier this month. It will mark the Canadian’s third major organization that he will be competing in. And given the PFL’s format of a regular season as well as playoffs, […]

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Rory MacDonald is relishing the opportunity to become a more active fighter.

The former Bellator welterweight champion recently signed with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) earlier this month. It will mark the Canadian’s third major organization that he will be competing in.

And given the PFL’s format of a regular season as well as playoffs, MacDonald is craving the opportunity to compete more than twice a year — something he’s only done once since 2014:

“I think my last year fighting and a couple others years fighting I was very busy,” MacDonald told MMA Junkie. “So, it’s something I’ve wanted to do because after my second fight with Robbie Lawler, I had this really bad nose injury, kept taking me out of fights.

“I had years in my career where I was benched. And I got one fight a year, sometimes zero, maybe one or two, and I always crave being more active. So I think it comes at a really good time of my life to be in the cage more often, and it’s something I crave, to be active as a fighter.”

MacDonald will even have to fight twice in one night if he is to advance to the PFL Finals of the 2020 welterweight season. But that’s something that excites him, especially having watched PRIDE growing up:

“I never would have thought that would have came in this day and age of MMA, but it’s a great opportunity,” MacDonald added. “Kind of brings the old school back from the old PRIDE days. When I was a kid watching, they used to do tournaments in one night, in K-1 they do one-night tournaments, and I always thought it was amazing. It tests your strength and your character. So, I’m excited.

“… I’m excited to see who they bring in also to fight me for the next season. That’s the exciting thing about PFL, you never really have the same bracket every year, so there is going to be some new blood. I’m excited, man. It’s going to be a great season.”

How do you think MacDonald will fare under the PFL format?

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3 PFL Fighters Facing Sanctions After Failed Drug Tests

Three PFL playoff competitors are facing sanctions following failed drug tests. MMA Fighting confirmed with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) chief assistant Jeff Mullen that the trio in question is Glaico Franca, Luis Rafael Laurentino and Ramsey Nijem. Franca and Laurentino tested positive for stanozolol while Nijem tested positive for marijuana. The former two are […]

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Three PFL playoff competitors are facing sanctions following failed drug tests.

MMA Fighting confirmed with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) chief assistant Jeff Mullen that the trio in question is Glaico Franca, Luis Rafael Laurentino and Ramsey Nijem.

Franca and Laurentino tested positive for stanozolol while Nijem tested positive for marijuana. The former two are claiming it was due to tainted supplements:

“I was caught by surprise because I’m a 100 percent clean athlete so you don’t expect to fail a drug test,” Franca told MMA Fighting in a statement. “That happened on Oct. 11, but I’m cool about it. I will prove that this stanozolol metabolite that showed up in my urine test came from a contaminated supplement.

“I know it’s my responsibility to check the supplements I’m using, but it’s also the responsibility of the supplement companies to include every substance on the label of the product. We already have an idea of which supplements we think may have caused this and we will prove they are contaminated.”

All three competitors competed in the 2019 PFL postseason. Laurentino and Nijem exited in the quarterfinals while Franca bowed out in the semifinals last month. France notably retired following his loss to David Michaud.

Following the extension of their temporary suspensions at a meeting with the NSAC, they will will all have a full disciplinary hearing on December 18.

What do you make of these failed drug tests?

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Kayla Harrison Welcomes Cris Cyborg Fight As PFL Open Talks

Former UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg won’t have any shortage of suitors as the Professional Fight League (PFL) is one of many interested promotions. As per UFC president Dana White, Cyborg has been released and is free to join any other promotion. There are certainly options aplenty from Bellator, ONE Championship and more. The […]

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Former UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg won’t have any shortage of suitors as the Professional Fight League (PFL) is one of many interested promotions.

As per UFC president Dana White, Cyborg has been released and is free to join any other promotion. There are certainly options aplenty from Bellator, ONE Championship and more.

The PFL is also interested and according to president Ray Sefo, they are talking to her team right now:

“Absolutely, we’re interested in Cris Cyborg,” Sefo told MMA Fighting. “Cris Cyborg is a legend. She’s been around the long time and she’s been a champion for many years. A champion in different organizations. Our team is talking to her team and hopefully we can make something happen.

“She’s in a situation where she’s shopping right now. She’s probably talking to Bellator, ONE FC and so on, so we’ll see. For her, I would love to sign her but we’ll just have to wait and see how that all pans out.”

The PFL is a particularly interesting move as they can offer Cyborg a fight with unbeaten Olympic gold-winning judoka Kayla Harrison. And it can also be at lightweight for a change.

Harrison has made no secret of her desire to face Cyborg as she welcomed her to the promotion:

“Absolutely. Come on down, Cris,” Harrison said. “It would be great. Listen, whether or not she loses to Amanda [Nunes], she’s still one of the greatest and to be the greatest, you’ve got to beat one of the greatest. So I’m happy to take that fight on, I’m happy to climb that mountain and take on that challenge.

“Right now, I’m going to focus on winning this season and hopefully Cris decides to slide on over to the PFL.”

Who do you think Cyborg will eventually sign with?


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