Vieira, a former UFC bantamweight title challenger, had been set to face champion Cris Cyborg for the PFL women’s featherweight championship. However, with Vieira hitting the scales seven pounds over the title fight limit, the league had little choice in the matter. The main event now continues as a catchweight of sorts: for Cyborg, the title is still on the line, meaning she can still lose it.

While Vieira has fought mainly as a bantamweight, she also blew weight for a 2025 144lb catchweight fight with Macy Chiasson, as well as for a bantamweight bout with Yana Santos in 2021. Neither of those misses, however, was nearly as bad as what transpired on Saturday.

Vieira later released a statement on the matter to MMA Fighting, saying that “I had severe pain in my kidneys and stomach since last night. I felt really sick throughout the entire night. Master ‘Dedé’ [André Pederneiras] slept in my bed with me, massaging my back so I could get some sleep.”

“This morning, I felt sick again and had another severe episode. I can’t explain why this happened. I was doing well on weight, I’m a bantamweight fighter, and it had nothing to do with my weight. I was in a lot of pain, and ‘Dedé’ wouldn’t let me continue losing weight. I was doing well and sweating properly, but then I had this very severe episode, and [Pederneiras] chose to prioritize my health.”

Vieira is making her promotional debut in the bout.

PFL Tampa Weigh-In Results

Main Card

Featherweight: Cris Cyborg (c) (145) vs. Ketlen Vieira (152.2)* – originally for the PFL women’s featherweight championship, Vieira ineligible to win title
Lightweight: Gadzhi Rabadanov (156) vs. Tracy Reeder (155)
Women’s flyweight: Taila Santos (125.6) vs. Sabrinna de Sousa (125)
Light heavyweight: Luke Trainer (205.6) vs. Roland Dunlap (205.8)

Preliminary Card

141lb Catchweight: Marcirley Alves (141.8 lbs)* vs. Nkosi Ndebele (140.4)
Bantamweight: Magomed Magomedov (136) vs. Daniel Marcos (135.6)
Bantamweight: Movsar Ibragimov (136) vs. Javid Basharat (136)
Lightweight: Dakota Bush (155.8) vs. Morquez Forest (155.8)
Lightweight: Natan Schulte (156) vs. Artur Zaynukov (155.6)
Lightweight: Gino Van Steenis (156) vs. Robert Watley (155.4)
Welterweight: Eoin Sheridan (170.8) vs. James Vake (170.8)

* fighter missed weight

Update: Per a statement by Cris Cyborg, she will still be eligible to retain her title, and will lose the belt should she lose to Vieira at PFL Tampa

The post Viera 7lbs Over for PFL Tampa, No Longer Fighting Cyborg for Title appeared first on Cageside Press.

Announced on Wednesday, Liz Carmouche (26-8) will run it back with Jena Bishop (11-3) to crown the inaugural women’s flyweight champion in the PFL. The fight will take place on October 16, 2026 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL.

Former Bellator MMA women’s flyweight champ Carmouche, who twice fought for gold in the UFC (at 125 and 135lbs), won the PFL World Tournament in 2025, with many expecting a title shot to come next. Instead, she returned earlier this summer, submitting fellow UFC alum Viviane Araujo in the second round at PFL San Diego.

PFL Chicago will see Liz Carmouche and Jena Bishop in a rematch of the World Tournament final, which saw Bishop knocked out in the third round. Bishop, a multi-time jiu-jitsu champ, has since bounced back with two submission victories, most recently putting away former UFC contender Ariane Lipski.

Bishop started her career with a 7-0 run that took her to the the 2024 PFL Global tournament by way of Bellator, a promotion the league later acquired. Seven of her eleven victories have been by way of tap out.

No other fights have been announced or reported for October’s PFL Chicago.

The post Carmouche, Bishop Run it Back for PFL Women’s Flyweight Title appeared first on Cageside Press.

In a video statement issued on her official Youtube channel, Ditcheva revealed some “breaking news” — mainly that she had broken both hands in the fight.

Ditcheva (16-0) had previously been sidelined for a year prior to the Kielholtz fight with exactly the same injury.

“I am injured again. I broke my hands in the fight,” Ditcheva announced during the 20-minute video clip, which also covered her performance in the bout, and fan reaction. “I could feel it from the second I started the second round. I didn’t tell my corner, I didn’t tell anybody, I didn’t show it this time. And I didn’t actually tell anybody until I got out of the cage. The only one I did tell actually was my cut man, Paul, he’s like my best mate and he looks after me, I did whisper that to him, I felt like I’d broken both of my hands.”

“That could possibly be why there was no interview after the fight,” she also noted. Much was made about Ditcheva, one of the faces of the PFL, not getting a post-fight interview in New York. Ditcheva isn’t 100% about that, but added that “I am back in splints until my surgeon has decided what the next steps are going forward, which will be in the next few days.”

“The good thing is, I have no new breaks. It’s just that, if I explain, the hand that wasn’t operated on originally that I broke at the end of last year, I was told that if I didn’t go ahead with the surgery at that time, there was a possibility that it would break again in my fight. And unfortunately, I took the risk in not doing the surgery because I was hoping that it would hold strong without intervening with that kind of thing. And it didn’t,” Ditcheva revealed. “So it’s no new injury, that is kind of the positive I’m taking from it.”

Ditcheva added that she’s “paying the price” for not getting the surgery when originally offered, and will now be out “a little bit.” There’s no clear timetable for her return, though it’s highly unlikely she fights again until partway through 2027. “I’m hopefully going to be back quicker than I was last time,” Ditcheva added.

Dakota Ditcheva was expected to face Liz Carmouche for the PFL’s vacant women’s flyweight title next, though that fight is now up in the air.

The post Dakota Ditcheva Announces She Broke Both Hands in Kielholtz Fight appeared first on Cageside Press.

Things could not have gone better for McGrillen (13-2), however, as he came away with a thrilling unanimous decision victory over Brandon Lewis in Charlotte that has seemingly wiped away all memory of the loss.

Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, NC, England’s McGrillen revealed that he decided to make a quick turnaround immediately after that July loss.

“Soon as I got out of the cage, bro. Last fight, not this one, last fight, five minutes, [my team] was like ‘we need to go again.’ And I’m like ‘yup, straight away,'” McGrillen recalled.

“At the end of the day, I wasn’t happy with the result three weeks ago, and I was going to make the changes. Go again, man. I’m the guy that will take risks, I’m the guy that will step out of my comfort zone. When people walk down the path, I’ll take my own path, because I’m by own person, I’m my own man, but I get guided by the right people.”

On improving in just a matter of weeks, McGrillen believes that “you can learn a lot in 20 days if you know what you’re looking for,” he added. “If you know what you need to work on, if you stay honest and true with it. You can be self-aware, some people can be self-aware with what you need to work on, but then when you get in there with the pressure and the lights and the audience and stuff like that, people go back to old habits and cracking and things. I know I need to work on that, I was always thinking ahead. Patience, patience.”

It’s all about fine-tuning the in-cage artistry, it seems.

“I’m the threat, I don’t need to rush it,” he continued, making an analogy to the world of fine art. “I’m painting it, I’m making art. Don’t rush it. Before you know it, you’re just making a nursery or a preschool sketch, instead of a Van Gogh. I’m doing a Van Gogh painting, you know what I mean?”

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Lewis McGrillen above.

The post PFL Charlotte: Lewis McGrillen Wants His Art to be Van Gogh, Not Preschool Sketch appeared first on Cageside Press.

Fremd earned his second win under the PFL banner after stopping the Brazilian by TKO in the sound round, but not before he took some punishment of his own in the opening frame. “I wanted to come out there and not be as sloppy, but man once you get in there and the doors lock and someone tries to hurt you, it all goes to instinct,” Fremd (13-6) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “And as soon as my coaches told me ‘clean that sh*t up in the second round,’ I finally threw a right hand that was clean, and it got him. It got him.”

Fremd, who exited the UFC in 2024 with a 2-4 record and back-to-back losses, has now won three straight contests: two under the PFL banner, and one in BKFC in the bare-knuckle boxing realm.

Asked whether, after fighting in the UFC and bare-knuckle, the PFL was his home, Fremd replied “no. MVP is, if you think about it. I fought for Bellator, I fought for UFC, bare-knuckle, PFL. Hopefully by the end of the year, next year, MVP.”

The PFL is in the process of merging into Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, and will begin to operate under the MVP banner in 2027. “I want this to be my home, I want to go after— this is a title run,” exclaimed Fremd. “I’m number nine, I got that win, we’ll see where they put me now.”

With four other middleweights competing at PFL Charlotte on Friday, Josh Fremd was game to face any one of them. That despite being on good terms with one half of Friday’s main event, Dalton Rosta.

“I want anybody. Anybody and everybody. I said it out there, I said, one of the greatest poets, one of the greatest poets of our time once said ‘b*tch, don’t get too comfortable,'” stated Fremd.

He’d later add that when it came to the middleweights in action on Friday, “I want to fight any single one of them. You can give me the Canuck, you can give me the Daddy’s boy, you can give me the retard, or you can give me the egomaniac. Dalton, I love you, you’re my boy, but we all know you got a big ego.”

The Canuck in question, Aaron Jeffery, defeated Josh Silveira, son of American Top Team coach Conan Silveira, on Friday. Rosta, the supposed egomaniac, fell to Bryan Battle by split decision.

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Josh Fremd above.

The post Josh Fremd Makes a Colorful Callout of Fellow PFL Charlotte Middleweights appeared first on Cageside Press.

Powell improved to 13-2 with the split decision win, and is 4-1 over his last five fights. Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Bojangles Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, Powell noted that he was “just focused on getting the job done” in the face of the crowd reaction.

“I’ve been around now for a long time now,” England’s Powell added. “I’m a vet.”

Explaining the lack of action on Friday, Powell noted that Yagshimuradov is “a very explosive counter-striker. So I knew it could potentially be like that. There’s going to be a lot of points where we’re twitching, and it looks like there’s not very much going on.”

“I’m a counter-striker, he’s a counter-striker. That’s what happened. He didn’t give much, I just gave more,” he added.

What Simeon Powell wants next is simple, and that’s a title shot. “I want the champion, I want Corey Anderson,” he exclaimed. “And if he’s not available and he wants to go to heavyweight, he should vacate, and then me and Shoeface [Antonio Carlos Jr.] can rematch.”

Former UFC star Antonio Carlos Junior, a tournament winner in the PFL, represents the lone loss in Powell’s last five fights. The pair met in June 2025, with “Shoeface” winning a unanimous decision. Carlos went on to win the PFL World Tournament later that year, and hasn’t competed since. Champ Corey Anderson, meanwhile, won the inaugural PFL light heavyweight title back in October with his own win over Yagshimuradov, but has floated the idea of a move to heavyweight, competing there once in the PFL prior to his 205lb title win.

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Simeon Powell above.

The post PFL Charlotte: Simeon Powell Wants Title Next, Be It Against Anderson or Shoeface appeared first on Cageside Press.

With the main card expected to air on ESPN following prelims on the ESPN App, things quickly went sideways as the Savannah Bananas game went over its allotted time. ESPN, however, killed the ESPN App stream, airing the movie Dodgeball, while the PFL main card apparently went to ESPN 2, not that viewers were aware, until it finally switched back to the main ESPN channel.

It’s a situation that PFL CEO John Martin has been frequently frustrated by in recent months.

“That’s live TV,” Martin admitted, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following the event. “We work collaboratively with ESPN. When you’re in the live TV business and you have prior programming that runs over, that’s a little bit unfortunately the nature of live TV. But bouncing us around in between all of the networks though is just maddening, quite honestly.”

“Again tonight I was getting texts from friends of mine like ‘the app ended, it doesn’t tell you where to go.’ They didn’t know to go to EPSN2 where we started, we had to rearrange some of our fights just to try to accommodate just so we could start the main card on the primary ESPN.”

It doesn’t help that the PFL Charlotte card had such a strong build, with early fights exceeding expectations, only for the main card to get off to a rocky start.

“Issues and problems continue, but we can’t use that as an excuse. My own opinion of the card tonight was, the star of tonight was the undercard. There were some amazing fights on the undercard, and the main card was a little more uneven.”

With the PFL’s merger into Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions underway, however, Martin does see a silver lining.

“I still love being on EPSN, they are the juggernaut in sports, and I think with our announcement with MVP, maybe we have an opportunity to talk with them and try to reset a little bit- what they may want, what we may want. I’m hopeful for that. So we’ll see.”

Martin was also pleased with the turnout at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday.

“We may have set a gate record for PFL, which obviously we’re MVP now, but for PFL events, we had a really, really strong gate,” he stated. Martin was also impressed with the crowd engagement in Charlotte, and admitted that while he knew it was a great sports town, “I didn’t know it was a really, really great MMA town. So that was a pleasant surprise for me.”

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with John Martin above.

The post PFL CEO John Martin: “Bouncing Around” Across ESPN Channels “Maddening” appeared first on Cageside Press.

Battle did, indeed, pick up a split decision win to claim his first victory inside the Professional Fighters League. Though “The Butcher” felt all three judges should have scored the fight for him.

“When it ended, I thought I won the fight for sure. It was tough, it was close but I feel like I landed way more strikes,” Battle (13-3, 1NC) said following the win, which came in his own back yard and went the full 15 minutes. “If you count the total number of strikes, I landed way more strikes and I’d be curious to see the control time.”

“You talk about being in the clinch, when we’re in the clinch, I was active in the clinch. Versus when he had me in the clinch, I defended the takedown. That’s one of the things that’s going on, if I don’t do what I have to do to stop the takedown, I end up on my back. And so I gotta do what I gotta do to stay on my feet, stop him from doing what he wants to do. And that’s not going to be entertaining all the time, if that’s what they’re trying to do.”

Battle touched on it, and fans at the Bojangles Coliseum certainly let it be known that the fight wasn’t always entertaining. Still, Battle felt he had the win, though he could be seen trying to sneak a peak at the judges’ scorecards prior to the official announcement.

“For sure, I definitely thought I did. I was looking over because it was taking way too long. Normally if it takes that long, normally someone’s getting screwed. So I was like, ‘what the hell is taking so long? Let’s get out of here.'”

Battle later added that “I won. I felt like I won three out of three judges should have thought that, but two out of three is all that you need.”

To fan online suggesting the fight was a robbery, Battle was blunt. “Bro I don’t care. Next question.”

Bryan Battle is now 1-1 since arriving in the PFL earlier this year and dropping his debut against Johnny Eblen. He’s looking to fight once more in 2026.

“Another fight before the end of the year. Doesn’t matter who. Impa, Impa just lost, that’s something, me and him have floated around each other for a long time,” Battle suggested, referring to fellow UFC alum Impa Kasanganay. Josh Fremd, who also won on Friday, was another name Battle brought up.

“Welterweight’s not out of the question either.”

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Bryan Battle above.

The post Bryan Battle on Judges’ Scorecards at PFL Charlotte: “Two Out of Three Is All You Need” appeared first on Cageside Press.

Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina following a decision win, Jeffery (17-6) reflected on the fight, and his choice to continue on in his career.

“I would always like to make it a pretty fight, show off my skills a little bit more because I swear I have some. But I’m getting to know myself a little bit better every time I fight,” Jeffery said of the affair, which saw him working over Silveira against the fence for a good chunk of time. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet on the fight looking like that.”

The Niagara Top Team athlete, who trains alongside the likes of Jasmine Jasudavicius and Mike Malott, wasn’t surprised by much in the fight.

“No. I would like to say I’m surprised that I didn’t have questionable moments in the fight, like I got wobbled once, he had me in a front head lock pretty tight once,” stated Jeffery, going on to add “it’s a fight, and sh*t happens.”

It almost didn’t happen. Meaning the fight, period. Dealing with an injury and out of action for over a year, Jeffery came close to walking away from mixed martial arts, at least as an active fighter.

“I’ve been saying it all week that I didn’t think I’d be back here. I had a sh*tty injury that, I didn’t know if I would fight again. And I kind of had made the decision at one point that I wouldn’t, and tried to move on with my life and I wasn’t happy and I decided to come back. I’ve been saying it all week, and it sounds cliché and boring and stuff, but I was just happy to be here.”

Jeffery, who was offered a fight while injured, would like to fight again by the end of the year. At the same time, he joked, “I feel horrible. I mean very happy I won, but I don’t feel good at all.”

The good news is, Jeffery appears ready to fight on. And he does so under a new-look PFL, soon to be rebranded as MVP as it merges with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. That should bring some opportunities with it. Jeffery might jump at the right one, though he admitted that “it depends on the match-up.”

“Fighting a pro boxer, maybe not. Fighting an MMA guy in a boxing match, sure.”

Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Aaron Jeffery above.

The post Aaron Jeffery Nearly Walked Away From Fighting Prior to PFL Charlotte appeared first on Cageside Press.

Both Battle and Rosta are looking to get back in the win column, with Battle falling to current interim champ Johnny Eblen in his promotional debut earlier this year. As for Rosta, the former Bellator MMA standout who went 9-1 in that promotion is 2-2 in the PFL and looking to shake off back-to-back losses against Impa Kasanganay and Fabian Edwards, both finishes.

Also on the card, ex-UFC talent Josh Fremd faces Jhony Gregory, while Canadian Bellator alum Aaron Jeffery takes on former PFL finalist Josh Silveira.

Full results from Thursday’s official weigh-in can be found below.

PFL Charlotte: Battle vs. Rosta Weigh-In Results

Main Card

Middleweight: Bryan Battle (185.6) vs. Dalton Rosta (185.8)
Light heavyweight: Simeon Powell (204.6) vs. Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov (205)
Middleweight: Josh Silveira (186) vs. Aaron Jeffery (185.6)
Bantamweight: Brandon Lewis (136) vs. Lewis McGrillen (135.6)
Middleweight: Josh Fremd (185.8) vs. Jhony Gregory (184.4)

Preliminary Card

Heavyweight: Denis Goltsov (251.4) vs. Hasan Mezhiev (220)
Featherweight: Cheyden Leialoha (146) vs. Robbie Ring (145.6)
Women’s flyweight: Cheyanne Bowers (125.4) vs. Elora Dana (125)
Lightweight: Michael Boylan (155.4) vs. Landry Ward (155.6)
Light heavyweight: Bruno Cappelozza (205.6) vs. Valentin Moldavsky (206)
161lb Catchweight: Wilson Lopshire (161) vs. Jonathan Martin (160.6)
Heavyweight: Maxwell Djantou Nana (264.2) vs. Eduardo Neves (261.8)
Welterweight: Trukon Carson (170) vs. Trey Waters (170.8)

The post PFL Charlotte: Battle vs. Rosta Weigh-In Results appeared first on Cageside Press.