Former UFC fighter Alex Nicholson has joined the PFL’s inaugural season.
The inaugural season of the Professional Fighters League just gained another UFC veteran in its heavyweight tournament. MMA Junkie first reported that Alex Nicholson, who was seen just last week finishing former UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez at CamSoda Legends (the inaugural MMA event hosted by the camgirl website), will be joining the PFL. Nicholson replaces Denis Goltsov, a Russian heavyweight with a 21-5 record who ran into VISA troubles.
Nicholson will be facing another UFC veteran, Jack May, at PFL 1 on June 7 at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. Despite the numbering convention, the PFL held a handful of shows last year, including PFL: Everett and PFL: Fight Night in Washington, DC.
One man who will not be back for the league’s tournament format is heavyweight champion Blagoy Ivanov. He’s signed on with the UFC, and will debut against former UFC heavyweight champ Junior Dos Santos.
Nicholson (11-5), meanwhile, heads into PFL 1 having gone 4-1 since being cut by the UFC a year ago. ‘The Spartan’ actually competed at middleweight during his UFC run. He’ll be facing May (9-3), who has not fought since January 2017 in Bellator, where he earned a win over Dave Cryer. Shockingly, the promotion failed to bring him back.
PFL tournament winners are looking at a bounty of a million dollars for a win at the end of the season.
The PFL’s full roster currently reads as follows:
Featherweight (145 lbs)
Alexandre Almeida
Bekbulat Magomedov
Max Coga
Nazareno Malegarie
Lee Coville
Lance Palmer
Marcos Galvão
Steven Siler
Andre Harrison
Juma Tuerxun
Magomed Idrisov
Timur Valiev
Lightweight (155 lbs)
Will Brooks
Rashid Magomedov
Luiz Firmino
Ramsey Nijem
Brian Foster
Natan Schulte
Jason High
Thiago Tavares
Yuki Kawana
Chris Wade
Islam Mamedov
Robert Watley
Welterweight (170 lbs)
Paul Bradley
Herman Terrado
Ray Cooper
Bojan Velickovic
Pavlo Kusch
Yuri Villefort
Abubakar Nurmagomedov
Jonatan Westin
Jake Shields
Magomed Magomedkerimov
Rick Story
João Zeferino
Middleweight (185 lbs)
Shamil Gamzatov
Abus Magomedov
Anderson Goncalves
Bruno Santos
Eddie Gordon
Sadibou Sy
Rex Harris
Louis Taylor
John Howard
Gasan Umalatov
Andre Lobato
Danillo Villefort
Light Heavyweight (205 lbs)
Jamie Abdallah
Vinny Magalhaes
Bazigit Ataev
Ronny Markes
Jason Butcher
Sean O’Connell
Rakim Cleveland
Smealinho Rama
Maxim Grishin
Dan Spohn
Brandon Halsey
Rashid Yusupov
Heavyweight (265 lbs)
Caio Alencar
Valdrin Istrefi
Francimar Barroso
Shawn Jordan
Josh Copeland
Mike Kyle
Daniel Gallemore
Jack May
Denis GoltsovAlex Nicholson
Jared Rosholt
Jake Heun
Nick Rossborough
