PFL heavyweight champion Philipe Lins has been forced to bow out of the league’s upcoming season before making his first appearance.
Reigning PFL heavyweight champion, and last year’s $1 million dollar winner Philipe Lins is out for the season. The Professional Fighters League announced the news themselves via press release Monday. As a result of the undisclosed ailment, Lins has been replaced by Zeke Tuinei-Wily. Wily will debut at the third event of the PFL’s 2019 season.
A former Division I football player at the University of Utah, Wily has gone 3-1 since making the jump to mixed martial arts. However, he was out of action from 2016 until February of this year, when he returned to action to pick up a win on the regional circuit. Wily also holds a win over UFC and Ultimate Fighter alum Darrill Schoonover, albeit by disqualification.
In his PFL debut, however, Lins has a tough test set out for him. That test comes in the form of Japanese heavyweight Satoshi Ishii (21-8-1), one of the top names in the heavyweight field for the PFL 2019 season.
PFL 3 (the league reset their numbering for the new season) takes place June 3 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. The event airs on ESPN2 with early action on ESPN+.
