The PFL Playoffs continued on Friday night, with the league setting up shop at The Theater at Madison Square Garden for the first of two events — and after a rocky start to fight week, the fights capping off the night were a smashing success.
Heavyweights and women’s featherweights were in action at PFL 8 on Friday, a card decimated by fight cancellations that wound up having just seven bouts in total. After a slow start with a couple of preliminary card match-ups going the distance, however, all four semifinal fights on the night delivered.
All four, in fact, ended inside the opening round. Marina Mokhnatkina got the semifinal action started, securing an early takedown, then an arm-bar, forcing Amber Leibrock to tap. One fight later, it was Denis Goltsov finding a submission of his own. He softened up Jordan Heiderman on the ground before trapping him in an arm-triangle choke, forcing a tap.
The co-main and main event winners got the job done on the feet. Fighting Olena Kolesnyk for the third time, last year’s women’s lightweight champ Larissa Pacheco took just 14 seconds to get the result she wanted this time around. She lit up Kolesnyk against the fence, which saw the Ukrainian quickly crumble, slumping to the ground.
Pacheco heads to the finals to meet Mokhnatkina with the chance to become the PFL’s first-ever two division champion. The Brazilian defeated Kayla Harrison in a shock upset last fall to capture lightweight gold; that division was mothballed with 145lbs being introduced in 2023.
In the main event, it was a right hand delivered towards the end of the opening round that left Maurice Greene in a daze. Renan Ferreira needed just a few ground strikes to send the ref charging in, but the fight felt over the second the right hand had connected.
Ferreira lands in his first PFL final in his third season with the league, while Goltsov goes to the finale for the first time after making the semifinal round on four separate occasions.
