The PFL is back with their third card of the regular season and we will see some highly anticipated matchups tomorrow night. The card is broken up between ESPN and ESPN+ with the ESPN portion starting at 7:00 p.m. ET and the ESPN+ portion starting at 9:30 p.m. ET.
The first half of the night features arguably the most anticipated matchup on the card. 2022 PFL lightweight champion Olivier Aubin-Mercier (17-5) welcomes “Hurricane” Shane Burgos (15-3) to the promotion.
Burgos signed with the promotion after two big wins to close out his UFC contract. Dana White was openly frustrated and regretted not bringing Burgos back. Nevertheless, the UFC’s loss was the PFL’s gain. Burgos was supposed to make his debut at the championship event in 2022, but an injury forced him out of the fight.
That night, OAM became the lightweight champion when he knocked out Stevie Ray in the second round with a brutal right hand. The win capped off a perfect season for OAM which saw him go 4-0. Aubin-Mercier started with the PFL back in 2021, but wasn’t able to compete in the playoffs.
He fought twice during the season and won both bouts. Combining that with last year and he has a perfect 6-0 record with the promotion. He will look to remain unbeaten tomorrow night while spoiling the debut of Shane Burgos.
PFL 3 2023
The second half of the card tomorrow night is headlined by the 2022 welterweight champion. Sadibou Sy (13-6-2) will look to kick-off his defense campaign successfully as he takes on Jarrah Al-Silawi (18-4) in the main event.
Al-Silawi made his PFL debut last year on the Challenger Series where he won by first round submission. That earned him a shot against Gleison Tibau and he was able to win a split decision. In July, he got knocked out by Magomed Umalatov. That loss was just his second loss since 2016.
Heading into the 2022 season, not many had circled Sadibou Sy as the guy who would walk away with the welterweight championship. However, the Swedish fighter was methodical and worked his way through the competition going a perfect 4-0 winning all of his fights by decision.
The 4-0 stretch is the best stretch he’s had in his entire career and he will look to make it five in a row in his 2023 season debut. It should be a really fun card tomorrow night and you can view the card in it’s entirety here.