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Eight fighters have already punched their tickets to New York for a shot at a $1 million payoff in the Dec. 31 PFL finals. Now four more fighters — the biggest that the promotion has to offer — are set to earn their spots in the New Year’s Eve finale.
The heavyweights and light heavyweights take to the cage Thursday night at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for their quarterfinal and semifinal matchups.
Whereas a couple of the other PFL divisions saw returning champions book return trips to the finals, the heavyweight and light heavyweight brackets are mostly filled with new blood in 2019. One exception is Vinny Magalhaes, who lost last year’s light heavyweight final to Sean O’Connell (who is now retired and doing play-by-play on the telecast). But Magalhaes is not the top seed at 205 pounds; Emiliano Sordi is.
At heavyweight, Denis Goltsov is the No. 1 seed coming off a season in which he stopped two of the fighters who are playoff participants.
Still to come:
On ESPN+ (5-8 p.m. ET)
Muhammed DeReese vs. Jared Rosholt
Vinny Magalhaes vs. Rashid Yusupov
Maxim Grishin vs. Jordan Johnson
Bozigit Ataev vs. Viktor Nemkov
Emiliano Sordi vs. Sigi Pesaleli
On ESPN2 (8-11 p.m. ET)
Goltsov/Ishii winner vs. Tiller/Isaev winner
Dereese/Rosholt winner vs. Nicholson/Barroso winner
Sordi/Pesaleli winner vs. Ataev/Nemkov winner
Grishin/Johnson winner vs. Magalhaes/Yusupov winner
Alex Nicholson vs. Francimar Barroso
Denis Goltsov vs. Satoshi Ishii