Once again taking place in Orlando, FL, week five of this year’s Challenger Series introduced the female 125lb division for the first time in league history outside of a one-off last year. While the weight class would not feature in the regular season, the possibility of that taking place in 2024 was high, with the ladies competing on Friday night getting a chance to make their mark early.

Among them, Ultimate Fighter 30 alum Kaytlin Neil. “Katniss” had come up short on the show, but had bounced back in an Invicta FC bout last year. Having previously competed for Bellator, she was essentially looking to complete the trifecta of fighting for three major promotions.

Neil’s opponent in the featured fight on Friday, Katherine Corogenes, was returning to the promotion after coming up short against Dakota Ditcheva at PFL 10 last year.

Also featured, Neil’s TUF housemate, Helen Peralta. A well-travelled flyweight, she was coming off a win over Aline Pereira in LFA — sister of UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira. Lisa Mauldin was booked opposite Peralta. UFC veteran Shanna Young was paired up with the only fighter to miss weight for the event, Peru’s Sandra Lavado. Bellator vet Desiree Yanez, meanwhile, was in against Maira Mazar.

PFL Challenger Series 2023 Week 5 gets underway at 9PM ET, airing on Fubo Sports Network. Full results can be found below.

PFL Challenger Series 2023 Week 5 Results

Kaytlin Neil def. Katherine Corogenes by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Shanna Young def. Sandra Lavado by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Desiree Yanez def. Maira Mazar by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
Lisa Mauldin def. Helen Peralta by TKO, Round 3, 3:51

Desiree Yanez earns a PFL contract on week 5 of the Challenger Series

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Women’s flyweight, never before a division featured in the Professional Fighters League, was being brought in for week five of the Challenger Series. Among the names in action were UFC veteran Shanna Young, TUF 30 and Invicta FC alum Helen Peralta, and her Ultimate Fighter castmate Kaytlin Neil.

While nothing has been made official, Peralta told Cageside Press earlier this month that the plan is to introduce the division this year, with the idea of adding it to the league’s regular season in 2024. Which gives the flyweights some time to establish themselves in the organization.

Weigh-ins for the PFL Challenger Series 5 card took place Thursday, with one fighter missing the mark. That was Sandra Lavado, a Peruvian standout who had appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series last year.

PFL Challenger Series 2023 Week 5 goes down Friday night in Orlando, Florida, and streams on Fubo Sports Network.

PFL Challenger Series 2023 Week 5 Weigh-In Results

Kaytlin Neil (125.6 lbs) vs. Katherine Corogenes (125 lbs)
Shanna Young (126 lbs) vs. Sandra Lavado (127.6 lbs)*
Maira Mazar (126 lbs) vs. Desiree Yanez (125.8 lbs)
Helen Peralta (125.4 lbs) vs. Lisa Mauldin (125.2 lbs)

* Lavado missed weight by 1.6lbs for her fight with Shanna Young

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While that’s in the immediate future, Peralta (6-3) was more than happen to cover any number of topics from her adventurous combat sports journey in a recent exclusive interview with Cageside Press.

Take her TUF 30 run. Peralta has been open about her Ultimate Fighter experience being lacking to say the least. During her first weigh-in after the show, for Invicta FC 49, Peralta turned up topless with a blunt message stencilled on the tape covering her nipples: F*ck Disney.

Peralta remained coy about what exactly inspired that message. After all, she may need to play nice with Disney. “PFL is on ESPN, which is owned by Disney. So I can’t talk about it,” she said with a laugh. That said, Peralta laid out her issues with the last season of The Ultimate Fighter, and gave us a glimpse of what viewers missed out on.

“Pretty much everything. That was the most watered down season of The Ultimate Fighter,” Peralta exclaimed. “I did it because I wanted people to know more about me, besides me just beating people up. There’s so much more to me as a person, I wanted people to be able to relate. I opened up a lot more because I thought they were going to do a better job editing it. There was a lot of fun in the house, a lot of drama in the house, but they pretty much didn’t show absolutely anything.”

“That was the most boring season of The Ultimate Fighter; I happened to be in the most boring season of The Ultimate Fighter because of the way they edited it.”

Among the scenes left on the cutting room floor was Peralta undergoing a second weight cut after being eliminated from the show. “I did a second weight cut just in case somebody dropped out. Nobody else wanted to cut weight, they just wanted to keep ordering food because you just order things and it’s brought to you. So when I was cutting weight some of the girls were like ‘oh you don’t have to cut weight, you don’t have to be hungry if you don’t want to.’ I’m like ‘dude I didn’t come here to eat, I came here to beat people up.'”

The show didn’t air any of that, however. “I wish they did because it would let other promoters know how committed I am to the game. That one kind of hurt. I know nobody missed weight and they didn’t need me, but the fact that you didn’t even use the footage — that really pissed me off.”

There were lighthearted moments too; an Oreo-eating game with Juliana Miller, who Peralta became close with — they might get to train together soon — and Peralta doing some cooking in the TUF house.

Peralta, however, is more about authenticity, something The Ultimate Fighter often lacks. That’s why she liked Miller, in fact. “She’s awesome. You know, she’s real. Most things now, we live in this make-believe world with these alternative facts and make-believe realities, I can’t handle it. That’s why you don’t see anything about me personally on social media. It’s all bullsh*t, it’s bad for you. I can’t be part of that.”

Peralta doesn’t expect you to fit in her box though. In fact, she admits she doesn’t have one herself. “You just have to be yourself. And she is herself.” Struggling with the fakeness of modern culture, while yearning to open up and show more of herself on the reality fighting show, wasn’t easy.

“Yeah. That’s why it was so much work for me just to be there,” said Peralta. “I feel like I got kidnapped for five weeks and got nothing out of it.”

Up ahead is the PFL Challenger Series, bringing in women’s flyweight for the first time. There’s been little word on what the plan is for the female 125lb’ers; Peralta was able to shed some light on the league’s plans.

“What they’re doing, because they don’t have a flyweight division, this year, they’re going to build it,” she revealed. “And then the people that stand out with their performances, those people are going to be part of the tournament in 2024.”

For Peralta, it’s Lisa Mauldin opposite her Friday night in Orlando, FL. From the sounds of it, she’s more than ready to go.

“I’m just going to press play. I haven’t watched her fights. She comes from a grappling camp, I heard she might be a kickboxer too, but I know kickboxing is off the table,” suggested Peralta. “At this point, people should know that it’s never a good idea to stand up with me. So I’m expecting her to try to come, try to hump my leg for 15 minutes, and I’m going to stop her from doing that, because I don’t like that kind of stuff.”

That comment about not watching her opponent comes from past experience: Peralta realized that so many opponents were dropping out of fights, she was essentially wasting her time. “You feel sh*t because you spent so much time preparing for one person. Then I realized, I’m like ‘wait a minute, I have to work on myself.'”

“The only person I should be focusing on shouldn’t be the other person I’m supposed to fight, according to the contract. It should be me. So I decided to switch the focus and focus on me, so that I can be the best I can be for that night. Then if for some reason I lose my opponent, maybe an injury, maybe she gets bitchitis, or whatever the reasons are, if the opponent changes, it wouldn’t effect me at this point.”

One opponent who did show up to fight Helen Peralta was Aline Perez, sister of UFC middleweight champ Alex Perez. The pair faced off in LFA in November, where Peralta spoiled the Brazilian’s MMA debut, winning a decision.

That said, she believes Perez has a future in MMA.

“Absolutely. I’ve never been hit that hard, and I train with a lot of different female athletes. Alex is also big, so is she, but it’s not like muscle mass. It’s genetic, I think the bone structure is just thicker,” Peralta said. “You can’t really train that. You can start kicking plaintain trees to make your shin a little denser, but their whole body is just like that. And they throw with their entire fist.”

“I think if she gets a little bit better in the grappling department, that girl is going to go places.”

Peralta is also a veteran of BKFC, having gone 2-0 in the bare-knuckle organization. Part of her taking up bare-knuckle was an injury that prevented her from training in MMA. But she’d consider going back, if things were a little different on the promotion’s end.

According to Peralta, BKFC was originally about just pushing good fighters. That soon changed. “They started with all the celebrity things, and the rappers, and all the sideshows because they wanted to increase viewership and social media. Again, it’s all this fake world, and I don’t understand that fake world. All of a sudden I didn’t have enough followers to get paid properly.”

“So I was like ‘followers?’ I don’t know. You are the promoter. I’m the fighter. If you want me to have more followers, promote me. That’s the name of your title! I’m cool as f*ck, I’m cute, I’m always doing cool stuff, I’m a badass— you can use that, and I’ll make myself available. I don’t show my ass on social media, I don’t have an OnlyFans, and my tits are small, so I can’t use them for views. So just promote me as a fighter. Trust me, there’s a lot of different aspects that people can relate to.”

That didn’t happen. “Instead they wanted the easy way which is, we’re just going to use people that already have big names, give them all the money and pay the rest of the fighters nothing. And I decided I wasn’t going to be part of it.”

No wonder Peralta is on board with the PFL and it’s sports-first mentality.

“I love the tournament and the way they have the season. I love the structure, I love what they’re doing. It’s actually pretty cool.”

Watch our full interview with PFL Challenger Series flyweight Helen Peralta above. Peralta faces Lisa Mauldin at PFL Challenger Series 2023 Week 5 in Orlando, FL this Friday, February 24, 2023.

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Young has been fighting since she was 16, taking a bout in Virginia with her mother’s blessing, at a time when the state had no commission. That was the start of a journey that took her first to Invicta FC, then to the UFC itself.

“The Shanimal” went 1-1 in 2022, and following a loss to Miranda Maverick last time out, now finds herself embarking on a career outside of the octagon. There was a time when life after the UFC felt dire if it existed at all. But in more recent years, free agency and options like the PFL and other promotions have seen that change.

“For sure, I’m honestly pretty excited about everything that comes next,” Young (8-5) told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of her PFL debut. “I’ve never been one to get into the whole New Year thing, the whole ‘new year, new me’ and everything, but I don’t know, everything kind of happened at the right time, going into the new year and everything. I kind of just feel like, I’m looking at everything a little bit differently. I’m ready to go back to my roots, and have fun doing this. I’m excited for what’s coming up.”

Young made the move to Las Vegas ahead of her third fight in the UFC, making the decision spur of the moment when she felt something was missing from her camp. “You know there’s big teams out here and a lot of opportunity, so I just decided last minute to uproot, come out here. I had four, five weeks left in my camp,” Young recalled. “I just showed up, ‘hey guys, I’m Shanna, it’s nice to meet everyone, let’s do this, I fight in a month.” Young admits it has been a process transplanting to Vegas, where she’s currently taking courses to become a Home Inspector in addition to fighting, but says it was a “great decision” nonetheless, one that led her to Syndicate MMA and coach John Wood.

When it comes to the Professional Fighters League, “I’m super-excited about the opportunity. We were looking at a bunch of options for me moving forward, and [my manager] mentioned this,” said Young. “I was just so excited to join the PFL.”

Whether or not the PFL opts to launch a women’s flyweight division for the regular season remains to be seen. Young didn’t know the answer to that question herself.

“I don’t know the answer — I don’t know either,” admitted Young. But while it’s now the great unknown she’s entering so to speak, “I like the great unknown,” she stated. “It’s kind of mysterious. I like mysterious.”

“I’m just excited about all of the opportunities moving forward from here. The past couple of years, and COVID, and the UFC and everything, it’s really kind of changed the fight game for me,” admitted Young, whose entire UFC career outside of her debut in Rio Rancho, NM played out during the coronavirus pandemic. “I want to get back to my amateur days. I love to fight, I just want to get in there and I just want to fight, and I don’t want it to be so stressful and I don’t want it to be what it’s turned into the last couple of years, with all the weirdness in the world. I’m just ready to fight, man.”

Young hadn’t started breaking down her opponent, Sandra Lavado, when we talked to her, but on the surface, she noted that “Sandra does have a really good record, I think it’s a really good fight. Sh*t, I’m excited to get in there.”

After taking karate as a child and branching out from there, “I’m pretty confident anywhere,” she added. “I started in karate, I got into wrestling. If you look at my fights, it’s kind of crazy how all over the board I tend to be. I’ll be really trying to stand up with somebody one fight, and then the next fight, I’m like diving for heel hooks. I kind of pride myself on being able to change the game and do it all.”

Ultimately, “The Shanimal” just wants to fight. No predictions, no trash talk, just a fresh mindset and getting back to her roots is what she’s looking to do.

“I just really want to get in there and leave it all in the cage. Like I said before, it’s been so stressful, it’s turned into such a job, there’s just been so much weirdness going on in the world that I’m just really adopting a new mindset this year. I really just want to get in there and get back to my roots, do it again for the reason that I started,” said Young. “I just want to get in there and fight and leave it all in the cage. I think it’s going to be a show.”

Shanna Young faces Sandra Lavado as part of Week 5 of the PFL Challenger Series on February 24, 2023. Watch our full interview with “The Shanimal” above.

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In a press release distributed on Wednesday, league officials announced the introduction of the women’s flyweight division to this year’s schedule.

“As we approach the kickoff to the 2023 PFL Challenger Series, we are excited to introduce our new Women’s Flyweight division as a part of this year’s eight-week competition being held live from the backlot of Universal Studios Florida,” said PFL President of Fighter Operations, Ray Sefo.

The addition marks the third women’s division to have featured under the PFL banner. Prior to this year, the sole weight class for women was lightweight, a division long ruled by Kayla Harrison. Harrison was upset by Brazil’s Larissa Pacheco in last year’s lightweight final.

As of 2023, with Harrison moving to the Super-Fight division, women’s featherweight has been added. Now, the league will also bring in flyweights, with the 125lb Challenger Series run topped by Chelsea Hackett vs. Desiree Yanez.

Hackett (3-1-1) appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series in November of 2020, coming up short against Victoria Leonardo. The Australian has not fought since.

Desiree Yanez (6-4) has previously competed for Combate Global and Bellator MMA. “Dirty Dez” is coming off a win over Natayla Speece at Peak Fighting 24 last October.

Other familiar names on the card include TUF veteran Helen Peralta and UFC alum Shanna Young. Bellator, Invicta FC, and TUF notable Kaytlin “Katniss” Neil also appears.

The PFL Challenger Series women’s flyweight card takes place February 24, 2023 in Orlando, FL. The following match-ups have been announced for the event:

• Chelsea Hackett vs. Desiree Yanez
• Kaytlin Neil vs. Griet Eeckhout
• Shanna Young vs. Sandra Lavado
• Helen Peralta vs. Lisa Mauldin

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