Lightweight and Featherweight Rosters Revealed for PFL’s 2021 Season

On Tuesday, the Professional Fighters League unveiled their lightweight and featherweight rosters for the 2021 season. And as expected, outside of the returning champions, former UFC title holder Anthony Pettis was the crown jewel. Although a number of promising returning and debuting PFL fighters will also take part as the league resumes action.

At featherweight, two-time champion Lance Palmer is back, flanked by Dana White’s Contender Series standout Brandan Loughnane, and former Bellator fighter Bubba Jenkins. Ex-UFC athlete Sheymon Moraes, and TUF 27 alum/Team Alpha Male prospect Tyler Diamond are among the other notable names.

The list of featherweights announced Tuesday is as follows:

Tyler Diamond
Bubba Jenkins
Movlid Khaybulaev
Brendan Loughnane
Sheymon Moraes
Lance Palmer
Jason Soares
Jo Sungbin

In addition to the eight 145lb’ers announced Tuesday, it is expected that two more names will join the division prior to the start of the 2021 season.

As with Palmer at featherweight, Natan Schulte, who won the PFL’s 2018 and 2019 seasons, returns at lightweight. Joining the champion will be an impressive 155lb roster including Anthony Pettis, former UFC standout Olivier Aubin-Mercier, and former Bellator submission threat Marcin Held. UFC and RIZIN vet Johnny Case, who competed for the PFL in 2019, and UFC alum Clay Collard also feature.

The PFL 2021 lightweight division consists of:

Akhmed Aliev
Olivier Aubin-Mercier
Clay Collard
Johnny Case
Marcin Held
Joilton Lutterbach
Mikhail Odintsov
Anthony Pettis
Loik Radzhabov
Natan Schulte

The PFL sat out the entirety of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, with names like Pettis and Rory MacDonald in tow, their 2021 return is expected to pick up, and build from where their previous season left off. The league returns to action on April 23, airing live on ESPN+ and ESPN 2.

Rosters for the welterweight, light heavyweight, heavyweight, and women’s lightweight divisions are expected to be unveiled soon.