Tomorrow night the PFL is in Washington D.C. for the final playoff event of the season before the world championships in a few months. Featherweights and welterweights will take center stage with the featherweights closing the show. In the main event, 2022 champion Brendan Loughnane (29-5) continues his pursuit for a second world title against Kai Kamaka III (14-5-1).
Loughnane was the odds on favorite to win the PFL World Championship in 2023. However, he suffered a knockout to Jesus Pinedo in the second regular season event and missed the playoffs. This year, he’s bounced back incredibly strong with a first and second round finish to earn the top seed.
His opponent tomorrow night is on a big winning streak. Kai Kamaka III was just 9-5-1 through his first fifteen fights. However, he’s really turned around his career. After three straight wins in Bellator, he got his chance to compete in the PFL Regular Season. He won decisions over Bubba Jenkins and Pedro Carvalho to earn six points and get this shot against Loughnane.
PFL Playoffs
The second seed in the PFL Featherweight Playoffs is Gabriel Braga (14-1) who was last year’s runner-up to Jesus Pinedo. Braga had defeated Pinedo earlier in the 2023 season, but lost in the rematch for the title. Thus far this year, he’s scored a first round knockout and won against Bubba Jenkins after Jenkins suffered an injury.
That injury TKO earned Braga five points, but he was docked a point due to missing weight. Still, that earned him ten total points which was good enough for the two seed. However, the draw that he got is a really tough one in Timur Khizriev (16-0).
As you can tell from his record, Khizriev has never lost in his professional career. After being picked up by Bellator in 2022, Khizriev won three straight before being brought over for the PFL Regular Season. He won decisions over Brett Johns and Enrique Barzola to earn six points and earn this spot in the playoffs.