On Friday, both Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira successfully made weight for PFL’s Battle of the Giants, with Ngannou coming in just shy of 257 pounds, while Ferreira was a half pound over 261. The fight marks both Ngannou’s return to MMA after a stint in boxing, and his PFL debut, after signing with the promotion as a free agent following another battle – that one with the UFC.

Having waited out his contract, which expired due to a sunset clause, Ngannou was able to secure the sort of money most fighters never see. He’ll make millions for his PFL debut, but as a show that he’s serious about helping fellow fighters, he also secured a $2 million dollar purse for his opponent.

Not too shabby. Also on the card is the return of Cris Cyborg, the Bellator women’s featherweight champ, facing off with two-time, two-division PFL champion Larissa Pacheco. And after being postponed weeks ago, the Bellator middleweight title fight between Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards also lands on PFL Battle of the Giants, which seems to be made up of more Bellator stars than it is PFL fighters.

Results from Friday’s weigh-in can be found below; the ceremonial weigh-in video gets underway at 11:30AM ET, 8:30AM PT.

PFL Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact Weigh-In Results

Main Card

Heavyweight: Francis Ngannou (256.8) vs. Renan Ferreira (261.5) – for the PFL heavyweight superfights championship
Women’s featherweight: Cris Cyborg (144.5) vs. Larissa Pacheco (144.1) – for the PFL women’s featherweight superfights championship
Middleweight: Champ Johnny Eblen (184.7) vs. Fabian Edwards (184.9) – for the Bellator MMA middleweight championship
Featherweight: Husein Kadimagomaev (146) vs. Zafar Mohsen (145.8)
Lightweight: A.J. McKee (155.8) vs. Paul Hughes (155.8)

Preliminary Card

Bantamweight: Marcos Breno (136) vs. Raufeon Stots (135.8)
Lightweight: Dedrek Sanders (154.9) vs. Makkasharip Zaynukov (153.6)
Featherweight: Nacho Campos (145.9) vs. Ibragim Ibragimov (145.5)
Featherweight: Taha Bendaoud (145.5) vs. Tariq Ismail (145.1)

The post No Misses, Full Card Makes Weight for PFL Battle of the Giants appeared first on Cageside Press.

The return of lineal UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou to mixed martial arts is just under a month away and his new promotion, the PFL, unveiled the complete fight card on Thursday morning for the event taking place on October 19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: Your Battle Of The Giants Fight Card is set 🔐

The countdown to impact is 𝙊𝙉 ⏳💥#PFLSuperFights | #BraceForImpact | Oct 19th pic.twitter.com/npBUbpv6Bb

— PFL (@PFLMMA) September 26, 2024

Leading the recently announced bouts is a featherweight contest between Husein Kadimagomaev (11-1) from Switzerland against Zafar Mohsen (13-4) of Germany who will be rounding out the pay-per-view portion of the card.  Kadimagomaev has built a strong record overseas where he has two appearances under the BRAVE banner and has trained with current UFC middleweight star Khamzat Chimaev.  Mohsen shares a similar path and enters the bout having finished his last three opponents.

Kadimagomaev and Mohsen join a pay-per-view lineup of pivotal bouts that includes the high stakes co-main event between reigning Bellator champion Cris Cyborg against two-time PFL tournament champion Larissa Pacheco, the middleweight rematch between Bellator champion Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards, and a lightweight bout between former Bellator champion AJ McKee and former Cage Warriors champion Paul Hughes.

Leading preliminary action will be former Bellator bantamweight champion Raufeon Stots who takes on Marcos Breno.  Stots is looking to continue building momentum back toward the title after notching his second victory over Danny Sabatello earlier this year.  Brazil’s Breno will be making his second appearance for the Bellator brand and first under the new iteration run by the PFL.  Breno has a previous fight with LFA but has been relatively inactive with only four fights in the past three years.  The two were previously targeted for a fight at the Bellator event earlier this month before it was scratched from the card.

The rest of preliminary card bouts that were announced will see up-and-coming talent from the Middle East and Europe in action with lightweight Makkasharip (15-4) taking on Derek Sanders (9-4), two featherweight bouts Ibragim Ibragimov (7-0) vs Nacho Campos (5-0) and Youssef Al Housani (4-1) vs Taha Bendaoud (3-0), and a middleweight fight Mostafa Nada (9-3) vs Ahmed Sami (11-4-0-1).

The event is set to take place in Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and will be broadcast on pay-per-view in the United States.

The Full Battle of Giants: Brace for Impact Fight Card:

Heavyweight Main Event: Francis Ngannou (17-3) vs. Renan Ferreira (13-3, 3 NC)
Women’s Featherweight Co-Main Event: Cris “Cyborg” (27-2) vs. Larissa Pacheco (23-4)
Bellator Middleweight World Title Fight: Johnny Eblen (15-0) vs. Fabian Edwards (13-3)
Featherweight Main Card Bout: Husein Kadimagomaev (11-1-0, 1 NC) vs Zafar Mohsen (13-4)
Lightweight Main Card Bout: AJ McKee (22-1) vs. Paul Hughes (12-1)

Bantamweight Early Card Bout: Raufeon Stots (20-2) vs Marcos Breno (15-3)
Lightweight Early Card Bout: Makkasharip Zaynukov (15-4) vs Dedrek Sanders (9-4)
Featherweight Early Card Bout: Ibragim Ibragimov (7-0) vs Nacho Campos (5-0)
Middleweight Early Card Bout: Mostafa Nada (9-3) vs Ahmed Sami (11-4-0, 1 NC)
Featherweight Early Card Bout: Youssef Al Housani (4-1) vs Taha Bendaoud (3-0)

The post Full Ngannou vs. Ferreira Card Revealed for October 19 PPV appeared first on Cageside Press.

After the win, Breno (15-2) was clearly emotional, something he opened up about during his post-fight media appearance.

“The reason why I was so emotional after the fight is that it just came to my mind, everything that I’ve been through in the last couple of years,” Breno stated. “Everything that’s happened in my career up to this day. And I won my debut in one of the biggest organizations in the world.”

Then there was knowing that he’d also seen one of his biggest dreams become reality. “I’m Brazilian, and if you’re Brazilian, you know how hard you have to fight to get to this level. And when I sat down and I knew I’d one the fight, it just came to me that I’d made one of my big dreams come true.”

For the fight against Hill, Breno for the first time took his fight camp outside of Brazil, instead working with Glover Teixeira’s camp in Connecticut, Teixeira MMA and Fitness.

“Champions have a different way of teaching things to other champions. I believe I’m a champion, I train with champions, I’m inspired by everything that they do inside that gym,” Breno said of the experience. “And it’s just special to me, everything they teach, the way they do it, it just keeps me going. And that’s what makes me so happy to be able to be part of such a good group and such a special group of MMA fighters.”

Watch the full Bellator 284 post-fight press scrum with Marcos Breno above.

The post Bellator 284: Marcos Breno Happy to Be Part of “Special Group” of Fighters at Teixeira MMA appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I asked for somebody in the top 10. They told me nobody’s available right now. I said I’d like to fight somebody ahead of me in the rankings even though I know the rankings don’t really mean a whole lot,” Hill told Cageside Press among other media on Wednesday.

“Yeah I don’t know what happened. They said everybody is either matched up or unavailable or still suspended.”

Hill’s original opponent, Matheus Mattos, pulled out of Bellator 284 due to injury so Breno stepped up on short notice.

Hill did not want to wait until later in the year to fight again so he accepted the bout with Mattos. Now he faces Breno in South Dakota.

Breno (14-2) makes his Bellator debut against a top 10 bantamweight in Hill. He comes off a knockout win at LFA 111 in July 2021.

“He’s good. He’s an aggressive up-and-comer. Good record. Coming off a good win so I think he’s a dangerous opponent, and he’s going to look to come in hot and make a statement and try to use me and my name,” Hill said.

“I think between the two, Mattos and Breno, I think they’re pretty similar stylistically. So it wasn’t a huge adjustment as far as preparation.”

With the Bellator bantamweight grand prix currently going on Hill would be remiss if he didn’t speak on it and what it means for him going forward.

“It kind of holds things up a little bit. I’m focusing on this one for sure that’s my main center of focus right now is just getting through this and beating Breno,” Hill said.

“But you know they’ve got to give me somebody that’s ahead of me in the rankings. Somebody that’s going to put me right up in title contention again. We’ll kind of see how it plays out.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Josh Hill above. Bellator 284 goes down in Sioux Falls, SD on Friday August 12th.

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