Tomorrow night the PFL hosts their fifth regular season event of the 2024 season with lightweights and light heavyweights taking center stage from Salt Lake City, Utah. Lightweights have the main event as last year’s runner-up Clay Collard (25-12) will be taking on Mads Burnell (18-6).
Starting with Burnell, he’s a Bellator vet who a lot of people had their eyes on ahead of the 2024 regular season. In his opening bout, he took on Canadian Michael Dufort (13-4) and was a betting favorite. However, Dufort submitted him in the second round to secure five points while Burnell enters tomorrow night with nothing.
The odds of him making the playoffs aren’t great due to the fact that every winner from the first event scored a finish. For Burnell to have a chance at making the 2024 PFL Playoffs, he would have to finish Clay Collard in the first two rounds to have a shot.
The odds of that aren’t great. Collard ran through Patricky Pitbull (25-13) in his opening matchup finishing the former Bellator champion in the second round earning him five points which is tied for first. That came on the heels of being submitted by AJ McKee earlier this year in the first round. Collard made the finals last year after a sensational run which included knocking out Stevie Ray. Overall, he’s 7-4 inside the PFL Smart Cage.
PFL 5 2024
I mentioned Dufort earlier, he has a matchup with Adam Piccolotti (14-6) on the prelims. Any kind of win will secure Dufort a spot in the playoffs where Piccolotti is in a similar spot as Mads Burnell. He’ll need to come up with a finish in the first two rounds just to have a shot at making the playoffs after he was knocked out in the third by Elvin Espinoza (10-0) to start the PFL Regular Season.
Espinoza’s third round finish earned him four points which has him one point ahead of his opponent tomorrow night Gadzhi Rabadanov (21-4-2). Rabadanov won his first fight by decision earning him three points. Both men will be going all out for a win to earn a spot in the playoffs. Rabadanov could win a decision to get to six points, but that would leave him vulnerable if someone who lost their first fight scores a first round finish which would tie him at six total points for the season.
Patricky Pitbull will be on the main card as he takes on fellow Brazilian Bruno Miranda (16-5). Neither of them have points as of now, but if one of them scores a finish in the first two rounds, it’s possible that they can find themselves in the playoffs this year. Miranda was submitted by Brent Primus (13-3) in the second round of their matchup earlier this year.
Primus will be taking on Soloman Renfro (11-5). Expect Renfro to go all out early as he tries to secure a spot in the PFL Playoffs while Primus will just look to get his hand raised to secure his spot. The full card for tomorrow night can be viewed here.