Injuries, withdrawals, and a massacre at the scale on Friday saw multiple fights cancelled and one co-headliner hit the scales heavy.

Of note, heavyweight Daiqwon Buckley came in at 272.4 pounds, badly blowing the heavyweight limit— nearly unheard of in the major leagues of MMA. While originally shifted to a super heavyweight fight, his bout with Louis Sutherland has instead been scratched from the card, which takes place at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

The modified card also means a modified start time, with action getting underway at 7:30PM ET.

Of the fights that have held together, heavyweights Renan Ferreira and Maurice Greene clash in the main event, in one of two semifinals in the weight class on the night. Denis Goltsov meets Jordan Heiderman in the second.

In the co-main event, meanwhile, Olena Kolesnyk came in heavy for her featherweight fight with Larissa Pacheco. It’s the third time the pair have met, with Pacheco winning the first two encounters.

2023 PFL 8: Ferreira vs. Greene Results

Main card

Heavyweight: Renan Ferreira def. Maurice Greene by knockout (strikes), Round 1, 4:46 — Semifinal round
Women’s Featherweight: Larissa Pacheco def. Olena Kolesnyk by TKO (strikes), Round 1, 0:14 — Semifinal round
Heavyweight: Denis Goltsov def. Jordan Heiderman by submission (arm-triangle choke), Round 1, 4:16 — Semifinal round
Women’s Featherweight: Marina Mokhnatkina def. Amber Leibrock by submission (arm-bar), Round 1, 1:45 — Semifinal round
Featherweight: Nathan Kelly def. Damion Nelson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Preliminary card

Heavyweight: Danilo Marques def. Satoshi Ishii by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Women’s Flyweight: Maíra Mazar def. Kaytlin Neil by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

The post 2023 PFL 8: Ferreira vs. Greene Full Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

Heavyweight and women’s featherweight semifinal action is lined up for PFL 8 on August 18, 2023 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, with Renan Ferreira and Maurice Greene headlining. It’s a fresh crop of candidates at heavyweight this year, as 2022 champ Ante Delija missed his first fight of the season, and didn’t make the playoffs as a result. On top of that, another former champ, Bruno Cappelozza, was bounced from the season due to a drug test failure.

Women’s featherweight is another story. Last year’s lightweight champ, Larissa Pacheco, returns, facing Olena Kolesnyk in the co-main event this Friday. She’s defeated Kolesnyk twice before, and is looking to land in the finals for a chance at becoming the PFL’s first-ever two division champion.

Weigh-ins for PFL 8, the second of three playoff cards for the league this year, take place Thursday. Results can be found below.

2023 PFL 8: Ferreira vs. Greene Weigh-In Results

Main card

Heavyweight: Renan Ferreira (259.6) vs. Maurice Greene (261.8) — Semifinal round
Women’s Featherweight: Larissa Pacheco (146) vs. Olena Kolesnyk (147.8)* — Semifinal round
Heavyweight: Denis Goltsov (243) vs. Jordan Heiderman (247.2) — Semifinal round
Women’s Featherweight: Marina Mokhnatkina (145) vs. Amber Leibrock (145.8) — Semifinal round
Featherweight: Nathan Kelly (145.4) vs. Damion Nelson (145.8)

Preliminary card

Lightweight: Chris Mixan vs. Eddie George * CANCELLED
Heavyweight: Danilo Marques (248) vs. Satoshi Ishii (240.2)
Women’s Flyweight: Kaytlin Neil (125.8) vs. Maíra Mazar (125.6)
Heavyweight: Louis Sutherland (250.6) vs. Daiqwon Buckley (272.4)**

* Kolesnyk misses weight, she forfeits 20% of her purse to her opponent.

** Buckley misses the HW limit, fight has been changed to a Super Heavyweight bout.

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Ukraine’s Kolesnyk (9-5) had won both her fights in 2023, but Aspen Ladd mounted a late second-round comeback to snag five points in her second fight of the season later that same night. That had them tied, and Ladd had a finish. Kolesnyk herself did not.

“I will sit in here and pray to have an opportunity to be in the semifinal. And if anything happens with one of these girls, if they give up, I won’t give up,” Kolesnyk told media outlets including Cageside Press, campaigning for a spot as an alternate. “I deserve to be in the semifinal, and I think I’ll do my best, just give me this opportunity to show it. And I promise the next fight will much more impressive than any fight before in my pro career.”

Kolesnyk’s prayers were answered before the event was even over. After a bit of confusion that included Kolesnyk anxiously watching fights from the back, shown on screen during the PFL 5 broadcast, it was announced that it was “Cannon,” not Ladd, who was going to the post-season.

Both fighters had five points on the season — Kolesnyk had lost a point earlier in the year for missing weight. But that fight had been a majority decision victory over Ladd herself, and that was the tie-breaker.

Regardless of how she got there, Kolesnyk is in the playoffs. And ready for them, it seems.

“I’m ready to be the face and represent PFL. To be the only one Ukrainian woman in the whole tournament,” Kolesnyk stated even before she knew she had made the post-season. “And me, my team, my coaches, people who are loyal to me even when I lost helped me a lot, to improve myself, improve my skills. As I told you right before this fight, I will be better and better from fight to fight and I will keep going, keep going to impress you guys. So I think I proved my worth today, and I know for the next fight, I will surprise you even more.”

Watch the full 2023 PFL 5 post-fight press conference with Olena Kolesnyk above.

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Olena Kolesnyk left her fate to the fight gods at the event, or so it seemed. At the very least she appeared to leave it to her contemporaries in the women’s featherweight division.

Kolesnyk secured three points thanks to a decision win against Yoko Higashi on the preliminary card at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. That gave her five points total for the season — but also meant that the possibility of being eliminated, and missing out on the playoffs, was very real.

Per the PFL broadcast, which showed Kolesnyk watching from the back, she needed Aspen Ladd’s fight with Karolina Sobek to go longer than two rounds, or for Larissa Pacheco to shoot an air ball in the co-main event.

Ladd wasn’t willing to go easy, however, securing an arm-bar submission with seconds left in the second round of her fight. That left Kolesnyk seemingly on the bubble, hoping for a Pacheco loss — until the PFL broadcast issued a correction: due to Kolesnyk holding a win over Ladd, the Ukrainian featherweight actually held a tie-breaker between the two. As both had five points for the season, Kolesnyk was seeded ahead of Ladd.

That left Ladd needing Pacheco to record a goose egg in her fight with Amber Leibrock. Pacheco, however, had other plans. She came out guns blazing, scoring a quick six points after swarming Leibrock with lefts and rights. The win shot her to the top of the PFL women’s featherweight standings; Pachecko heads to the post-season looking to become the promotion’s first fighter to win titles in two separate weight classes, as the Brazilian claimed lightweight gold a year ago.

The heavyweight division was another story. It was returning champ Ante Delija, having missed the first fight of the season, who needed an early finish on Friday. But against Maurice Greene, he lacked urgency early, only becoming dominant later in the bout.

That was enough for Delija to take the win, and eliminate Greene from the post-season. Delija won’t be moving on either however. Renan Ferreira, Jordan Heiderman and Marcelo Nunes, all of whom had first-round finishes on Friday, jumped into playoff spots, joining Denis Goltsov, who had 12 points on the season with back-to-back first-round finishes.

The post season for heavyweight and women’s featherweight breaks down as follows:

2023 PFL Heavyweight Semifinals

• Denis Goltsov vs. Jordan Heiderman
• Renan Ferreira vs. Marcelo Nunes

2023 PFL Women’s Featherweight Semifinals

• Larissa Pacheco vs. Olena Kolesnyk
• Marina Mokhnatkina vs. Amber Leibrock

The post PFL 5: Drama As Women’s Featherweight Season Wraps, Heavyweights Punch Their Way to Post-Season appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I’ll be honest with you, I have some, I wouldn’t call it a problem, because it helped me for my fight career, I think it’s more a problem for my personal life. I’m never happy with myself,” Kolesnyk (8-5, 1NC) told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of her return to action this Friday at PFL 5, where she faces Yoko Higashi. “So as soon as my hand’s raised up, it does not mean I’m happy, totally happy. I’m happy for the work we’ve done, with my team, but as soon as I re-watch my fights, I always criticize myself, even if I landed some good punches or a defense from good shots, or I just threw my opponent.”

Regardless of outcome, Kolesnyk, who is coming off a win over Aspen Ladd, still tells herself things like “okay, I can turn my hips here better, you can land this punch better, if you landed this, not middle kick, if you landed the high kick, she would be KO’d in the second round.”

“I never felt like ‘oh, job was done.’ I always know that there’s a lot of work, and I just want to be the best version of myself. I’m really hungry for knowledge, I’m really hungry to be the best. I want to be the best in striking, I want to be the best in grappling, in wrestling, in jiu-jitsu, in everything.”

Kolesnyk wants to not just be a world champion, but a complete mixed martial artist as well.

The 33-year old also takes her job as a role model quite seriously. “That’s why I feel a lot of, I wouldn’t say pressure, but a lot of people from Europe, from my country, I’m an example for them. Especially for girls. So I try to work harder and harder to make my technique better, to show them how it’s supposed to be. I’m the biggest critic of myself.”

With that in mind, Kolesnyk calls herself “blessed” to be part of the PFL’s tournament format. “It gives you an opportunity to fight from fight to fight. All you need to do is just win, and become better.”

Later, she would explain that “I love to punch people, and I love to be punched. For right now, at this moment, I do exactly what I love to do for my living. It’s not only a job for me, it’s what I love to do. I like to feel this fear, I like to compete, I like to step into the octagon, I like to hear the audience, I like to hear the lock is closed. And I like to feel ‘okay, now it’s my Rome, now it’s my Colosseum.” The judges are her Caesar, Kolesnyk added, giving the thumbs up or thumbs down.

Ahead of her last fight, Kolesnyk notoriously shaved her head to make weight. While many have suggested that route for female fighters struggling at the scale, the fighter known as “Cannon” Kolesnyk is one of the few to have actually done it.

As it turns out, she’d do it again, despite preferring a feminine look outside the cage. “If I need to be bald again, I will do it without hesitation. Because a sports life is a really short life.”

Watch our full interview with 2023 PFL 5 women’s featherweight Olena Kolesnyk above.

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Olena Kolesnyk, set to fight UFC veteran Aspen Ladd, missed the featherweight limit by 0.4lbs, and did not continue her cut for the Las Vegas-based event, scheduled to take place on Friday night at The Theater at Virgin Hotels.

As a result, Kolesnyk has been fined 20% of her purse — and will be deducted one point from the regular season standings on top.

PFL 2 is headlined by Larissa Pacheco, last year’s women’s lightweight champ, making the move back to 145lbs to take on former Bellator MMA champion Julia Budd. Yorgan De Castro, originally booked against last year’s heavyweight champion Ante Delija, has seen two opponent switches, and now gets Danilo Marques.

All other fighters made weight for Friday’s card. Full results can be found below.

PFL 2: Pacheco vs. Budd Weigh-In Results

Main Card (ESPN2)

Women’s Featherweight: Larissa Pacheco (146.0 lbs) vs. Julia Budd (145.6 lbs)
Heavyweight: Bruno Cappelozza (240.8 lbs) vs. Matheus Scheffel (258.0 lbs)
Women’s Featherweight: Olena Kolesnyk (146.4 lbs) vs. Aspen Ladd (145.6 lbs)
Amateur Lightweight: Biaggio Ali Walsh (155.4 lbs) vs. Isaiah Figueroa (155.6 lbs)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+)

Heavyweight: Renan Ferreira (260.4 lbs) vs. Rizvan Kuniev (249.8 lbs)
Heavyweight: Marcelo Nunes (244.8 lbs) vs. Maurice Greene (251.2 lbs)
Heavyweight: Danilo Marques (249.2 lbs) vs. Yorgan De Castro (264.4 lbs)
Women’s Featherweight: Martina Jindrova (145.6 lbs) vs. Amber Leibrock (145.6 lbs)
Women’s Featherweight: Evelyn Martins (145.8 lbs) vs. Karolina Sobek (145.6 lbs)
Women’s Featherweight: Marina Mokhnatkina (146.0 lbs) vs. Yoko Higashi (144.8 lbs)

* Kolesnyk missed weight by 0.4lbs, and will forfeit 20% of her purse plus will be deducted 1 point from the League standings

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The Professional Fighters League hits up the Copper Box Arena in London on August 20, 2022 with the third of three playoff cards that also sees stops in New York City and Cardiff, Wales.

However although the two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion will get top billing, Harrison doesn’t top the leader board at 155 pounds this year. That honor goes to Larissa Pacheco, who earned two first-round stoppages this season and 12 points in the process.

Harrison (13-0) went to a decision in her first fight of the year against Marina Mokhnatkina, before pummelling Kaitlin Young to earn a first-round TKO at PFL 6 earlier this month. That leaves Harrison with nine points, and has earned her a semifinal match-up with Martina Jindrova (6-2). Like Harrison herself, Jindrova earned nine points in the 2022 regular season.

Pacheco (17-4), meanwhile, is paired up with Ukraine’s Olena Kolesnyk (7-4), who went 2-0 in 2022 with two decisions. That’s a drastic improvement for the 32-year old “Cannon,” who went 0-2 last year.

The mean’s featherweight semifinals, also taking place in London on August 20, will see Brendan Loughnane up against Chris Wade, while Ryoji Kudo draws Bubba Jenkins.

PFL officials announced the full London card on Wednesday, with the following fights set:

• Kayla Harrison vs. Martina Jindrova
• Chris Wade vs. Brendan Loughnane
• Larisa Pacheco vs. Olena Kolesnyk
• Ryoji Kudo vs. Bubba Jenkins
• Dakota Ditcheva vs. Hassna Gaber
• Louie Sutherland vs. Abraham Bably
• Tayo Odunjo vs. Magnus Onyeka
• Ali Taleb vs. Kenji Bortoluzzi
• Simeon Powell vs. Nemanja Uveric
• Stuart Austin vs. Sofiane Boukichou
• Marcin Held vs. Myles Price
• Aleksandrs Chizovs vs. TBA

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