The Professional Fighters League closes out its first round of fights in its second season at PFL 3 as light heavyweights, including Season 1 runner-up Vinny Magalhaes, and the heavyweight division step into the cage.
Defending PFL heavyweight champion Philipe Lins had to drop out of the competition due to an injury sustained in May, leaving that division wide open for the taking.
The broadcast for PFL 3, which takes place at NYCB Live: Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, begins on ESPN 2 at 7 p.m. ET, with coverage moving over to ESPN+ at 9 p.m. for the duration of the event.
Follow along throughout the night as the heavyweights and light heavyweights jockey for position in the first of two regular season fights for each 12-man division.
Maxim Grishin def. Jordan Johnson via unanimous decision (3 points) (Light heavyweight)
All three judges scored the fight 29-28.
Full recap to come…
Ante Delija def. Carl Seumanutafa via unanimous decision (3 points) (Heavyweight)
Both Ante Delija and Carl Seumanutafa fought as if they had little interest in the bonus points available to them in the opening heavyweight bout of the night at PFL 3. It wasn’t pretty. But Delija, who had fought just once since suffering a broken leg in a TKO loss to Marcin Tybura in 2015, continued his comeback with a decision win over Seumanutafa, a late replacement for the injured Ben Edwards.
Delija was active in the first round, taking his opponent down and throwing some heavy hammerfists from top and controlling the fight. But he played it safe in the second and third rounds, securing the win by smothering Seumanutafa against the cage. It was enough to earn the lopsided decision and three points with the win.
Bozigit Ataev def. Dan Spohn via first-round TKO (6 points) (Light heavyweight)
Last year, Bozigit Ataev was winning his light heavyweight fight against Dan Spohn during the first season of the PFL when Spohn threw a vicious combo late in the third round of the fight and secured the victory. It appeared that Spohn might be poised to repeat that feat again on Thursday in the rematch, which was the opening bout of PFL 3
But the 40-year-old Ataev — the oldest fighter in the division — weathered an early one-two combo and then finished the fight at 3:25 into the first round. He put Spohn down with a hard right hand and ended the bout with aggressive ground-and-pound, avenging last year’s result and earning six points for the first-round stoppage.
Still to come:
– Heavyweight: Alex Nicholson vs. Francimar Barroso
– Light heavyweight: Rashid Yusupov vs. Mikhail Mokhnatkin
– Light heavyweight: Ronny Markes vs. Sigi Pesaleli
– Light heavyweight: Rakim Cleveland vs. Viktor Nemkov
– Heavyweight: Valdrin Istrefi vs. Ali Isaev
– Heavyweight: Jared Rosholt vs. Denis Goltsov
– Heavyweight: Satoshi Ishii vs. Zeke Tuinei-Wily
– Heavyweight: Kelvin Tiller vs. Muhammed Dereese
– Light Heavyweight: Vinny Magalhaes vs. Emiliano Sordi