WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Just hours ago, 24 fighters stepped on the scales in the nation’s capital in advance of their first regular season fight of the 2018 PFL season. All 24 fighters on the PFL3 card made weight and were cleared to fight in the July 5 event at the Charles E. Smith Center at The George Washington University.
The 12-bout card will feature the highly-anticipated fight between Jake Shields, welterweight star and former UFC fighter, and Ray Cooper III, who boasts a 100% finish rate with eight KOs and five submissions. The card also features Abubakar Nurmagomedov, a Russian native and cousin of current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who will also step into the cage with fellow welterweight Pavlo Kusch from Ukraine.
“The intensity our fighters brought to the weigh-ins today have me confident that tomorrow’s fights will match the excitement and continue the momentum from PFL1 and PFL2,” said Carlos Silva, League President of PFL. “We are honored to be here in the Washington DC for the 4th of July, and we intend to keep the fireworks going at PFL3 tomorrow night at The George Washington University.”
The 24 middleweight and welterweight PFL fighters are all in the running to earn a place in PFL’s debut season “win-or-go-home” playoffs and the December 31 championship event where $10 million will be awarded—the largest prize pool in MMA history. Each champion in PFL’s six weight classes will go home with the title and $1 million.
On Wednesday, PFL announced the final card for PFL3:
Jake Shields (32-9-1) 170.4 lbs. vs. Ray Cooper (14-3) 170.6 lbs.
Abubakar
Nurmagomedov (14-1) 171.0 lbs. vs. Pavlo Kusch (22-5) 169.4 lbs.
Rick
Story (19-9) 170.6 lbs. vs. Yuri Villefort (11-5) 170.6 lbs.
Shamil
Gamzatov (11-0) 185.6 lbs. vs. Eddie Gordon (8-4) 186.0 lbs.
John
Howard (25-13) 185.6 lbs. vs. Gasan Umalatov (17-4-2) 185.8 lbs.
Herman
Terrado (15-3-1) 169.2 lbs. vs. Magomed Kerimov (18-5) 170.8 lbs.
Joao
Zeferino (21-9) 170.8 lbs. vs. Paul Bradley (23-8) 171.0 lbs.
Bruno
Santos (16-2) 185.8 lbs. vs. Sadibou Sy (16-2) 185.6 lbs.
Louis
Taylor (14-4) 186.0 lbs. vs. Anderson Goncalves (11-1) 185.4 lbs.
Rex
Harris (10-3) 185.8 lbs. vs. Andre Lobato (24-7) 185.2 lbs.
Danillo
Villefort (15-5) 183.8 lbs. vs. Abus Magomedov (18-3) 185.6 lbs.
Bojan
Velickovic (15-6-1) 170.2 lbs. vs. Jonatan Westin (10-2) 170.6 lbs.
U.S.-based and international fans can watch all PFL regular season, playoff, and championship fights—over 66 hours of live action—for free. In the United States, all of the PFL regular season events air live on Thursday in primetime exclusively on NBCSN, and stream live on NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app, and www.pflmma.com. Outside the U.S., Facebook will stream up to six hours of free, live coverage for each event. In the U.S., fans can watch the first three hours of coverage of each event on Facebook.
About Professional Fighters League™
The Professional Fighters League presents MMA for the first time in the sport format where individuals compete in a regular season, “win-or-go-home” post-season, and championship. Co-founded by Donn Davis, Russ Ramsey, and Mark Leschly, the Professional Fighters League is backed by an ownership group of sports, media, and business titans. The PFL 2018 Season has 72 fighters in six weight-classes, competing in the regular season on Thursday nights in June, July, and August. The top eight in each weight-class face off in single-elimination playoff fights on Saturday nights in October and the PFL season concludes December 31 with six championship bouts back-to-back with a $10 million prize pool. Watch the entire PFL season action beginning June 7 live on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), Facebook Watch, and PFLmma.com. For more visit www.PFLmma.com.
