The PFL Championships for 2022 took place on Friday night at The Hulu Theatre. Larissa Pacheco dethroned Kayla Harrison to win the women’s lightweight championship and give the former Olympian her first professional loss in MMA.
Pacheco earned the $1M prize with a unanimous decision victory over Harrison. In their prior two fights, Harrison grabbed the victories. Pacheco, who proclaimed to have changed since their last fight almost three years ago.
Pacheco was the overwhelming upset of the night although each of the $1M winners deserved to be called a big winner.
In addition to Pacheco’s victory, Brendan Loughnane stopped Bubba Jenkins in the 4th round for the Featherweight title. Ante Delija earned the Heavyweight title by stopping Matheus Scheffel via TKO in the first round. Olivier Aubin-Mercier stopped Stevie Ray in the second round to win the $1M in the lightweight division. Rob Wilkinson also earned a second round stoppage by stopping Omari Akhmedov.
Perhaps the only fight that was not on par with the others was Sadibou Sy defeating Dilano Taylor via unanimous decision.
Other winners…
Aspen Ladd returned to action after leaving the UFC to win a split decision on a very game Julia Budd.
There is a star in the making in Dakota Ditcheva as she defeated Katherine Corogenes in the very first round of the women’s flyweight matchup. The UK muay thai specialist then gave a great post-fight interview in the PFL cage. Her star will continue to rise and she will be a big part of the PFL Expansion in Europe.
Some that did not show well…
Unfortunately for Marlon Moraes, he lost yet again. After looking good for most of the three round fight with Sheymon Moraes, he was hit with a flurry with punches and that was it for the former UFC standout.
Jeremy Stephens did not look good at all against Natan Schulte. The Brazilian was able to submit Stephens fairly easily and the former UFC lightweight contender is in a downward spiral of losses.
The pacing of the show was very deliberate. While I understand the need to provide context and backstory for those viewers that need to be introduced to the fighters, it seemed very drawn out. The good news on that end is that there was a sufficient number of Knockouts to satisfy the need for action.
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