WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Professional Fighters League (PFL), the first organization to showcase mixed martial arts in a true sport format, held their third regular-season event in front of a packed house at the Charles E. Smith Center, on the campus of The George Washington University. Thousands of PFL fans came together to see what the welterweight and middleweight cards had to offer, and they were not disappointed.
Jake Shields and Ray Cooper III had history with Shields splitting a pair of fights with Cooper’s father Ray Cooper Jr. in 2002 and 2004. The younger Cooper, looking to settle the score with Shields, blasted away at the venerable welterweight right from the opening bell. He cracked Shields with a right hand that opened up a cut above his left eye and left Shields completely on the defensive. Cooper moved in and finished Shields in the second with a vicious ground and pound assault that forced the referee to intervene, sealing the massive upset.
Abubakar Nurmagomedov, a Russian native and cousin of current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, fell to fellow welterweight Pavlo Kusch in another stunning upset. Kusch dueled with Nurmagomedov for the first round in a back-and-forth affair but in the second frame Kusch landed a big shot that the Dagestani could not recover from. Kusch pounced on his wobbled foe and sunk a fight-ending rear naked-choke for the five-point win.
“As a DC native, I could not be more thrilled with the action the PFL brought to our Nation’s Capital tonight,” said Carlos Silva, League President of the PFL. “The League continues to showcase top-quality fights filled with highlight-reel finishes as the fighters compete for their spot in the post-season.”
Final Results:
Ray Cooper III (5 pts.) def. Jake Shields (0
pts.) by TKO (strikes) at 2:09 R2
Pavlo Kusch (5 pts.) def.
Abubakar Nurmagomedov (0 pts.) by submission (rear naked-choke) at 1:23
R2
Rick Story (3 pts.) def. Yuri Villefort (0 pts.) by unanimous
decision (30-27, 30-27 and 30-27)
Shamil Gamzatov (3 pts.) def.
Eddie Gordon (0 pts.) by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 and 29-28)
John
Howard (5 pts.) vs. Gasan Umalatov (0 pts.) by submission (rear
naked-choke) at 2:59 R2
Magomed Kerimov (6 pts.) def. Herman
Terrado (0 pts.) by TKO (technical submission RNC) at 4:54 1R
Joao
Zeferino (6 pts.) def. Paul Bradley (0 pts.) by knockout at 1:58 1R
Bruno
Santos (3 pts.) def. Sadibou Sy (0 pts.) by unanimous decision (29-28,
29-28 and 29-28)
Louis Taylor (4 pts.) def. Anderson Goncalves (0
pts.) by TKO (strikes) at 1:58 3R
Rex Harris (3 pts.) def. Andre
Lobato (0 pts.) by split-decision (28-29, 29-28 and 29-28)
Abus
Magomedov (6 pts.) def. Danillo Villefort (0 pts.) by TKO (strikes) at
3:37 1R
Bojan Velickovic (5 pts.) def. Jonatan Westin (0 pts.) by
TKO (strikes) at 2:20 2R
Welterweight and Middleweight Standings After One Fight:
| PFL Welterweight Standings | |||||||||||||
| Fighter | Ranking | Points | PFL Record | Next Fight | |||||||||
| Joao Zeferino | 1 | 6 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Magomed Magomedkerimov | 2 | 6 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Pavlo Kusch | 3 | 5 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Ray Cooper | 4 | 5 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Bojan Velickovic | 5 | 5 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Rick Story | 6 | 3 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Yuri Villefort | 7 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Jonatan Westin | 8 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Jake Shields | 9 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Abubakar Nurmagomedov | 10 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Herman Terrado | 11 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Paul Bradley | 12 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| PFL Middleweight Standings | |||||||||||||
| Fighter | Ranking | Points | PFL Record | Next Fight | |||||||||
| Abus Magomedov | 1 | 6 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| John Howard | 2 | 5 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Louis Taylor | 3 | 4 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Shamil Gamzatov | 4 | 3 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Bruno Santos | 5 | 3 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Rex Harris | 6 | 3 | 1-0 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Andre Lobato | 7 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Sadibou Sy | 8 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Eddie Gordon | 9 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Anderson Goncalves | 10 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Gasan Umalatov | 11 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
| Danillo Villefort | 12 | 0 | 0-1 | PFL 6—Ocean Resort Casino; Atlantic City, NY | |||||||||
After three events, all 72 fighters have competed in their first regular season fight, and the playoff race is heating up. The next round of fights will determine the top eight fighters in each weight class to compete in PFL’s 2018 postseason.
“The fighters know they are in control of their destiny, and they left everything in the cage tonight,” said Ray Sefo, President of Fighting Operations of PFL. “PFL3 in DC continued the momentum we built in New York and Chicago, and we can’t wait to see what the fighters bring to PFL4 in two weeks on Long Island.”
The 2018 PFL season features 126 fights on Thursday nights in seven regular-season events, bracket-style “win or go home” playoffs, and a $10 million post-season prize pool—the largest prize pool in the history of MMA. The season began with 12 athletes in each of six different weight-classes. Eight fighters from each class will earn their way into the playoff round, and one fighter in each division will earn the title of champion.
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.
