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 welterweights kicking off the action tomorrow night.
The first playoff matchup of the evening features the top welterweight seed Shamil Musaev (18-0-1) taking on the four seed and fellow Russian Murad Ramazanov (12-1). This is one of those interesting times in the PFL where a playoff matchup is actually a rematch from the second regular season event.
After both Musaev and Ramazanov scored finishes in their first bout, both men faced off back in June. At the time, both were undefeated, but as you can tell, Musaev got the better of things in their first fight. Musaev scored a second round vicious knockout to earn the top seed. Now, Ramazanov will try to get that one back while punching his ticket to the PFL World Championships.
PFL Playoffs
The second welterweight matchup which will serve as the co-main event of the evening, features a fighter who was not originally in the PFL Playoffs. Neiman Gracie (13-5) did not do enough to originally punch his ticket to the playoffs. He lost his opening bout to Goiti Yamauchi.
However, in his second bout, he defeated Don Madge by a decision to earn three points. Despite holding a win over Madge, Madge got the playoff spot due to his first round finish in the first event of the season. However, Madge suffered an injury and couldn’t compete so the PFL let the man who defeated him into the playoffs.
He’ll be taking on the two seed in Magomed Umalatov (16-0). Umalatov is as tough as they come and he’s a perfect 7-0 inside the PFL Smart Cage. He’s been with the promotion since 2021, but this is the first time his wins have been enough to make the playoffs. He’s looking to take full advantage and he’ll look to punch his ticket to the World Championships later this year.