Featherweights, Light Heavyweights Take Center Stage At PFL’s Final 2021 Playoff Event

KEY POINTS

Brendan Loughnane faces Movlid Khaybulaev in the main event
Chris Wade takes on Bubba Jenkins in the co-headliner
PFL Playoff 3 is the final stop before the PFL Championships in October

Featherweight and light heavyweight contenders take center stage as the Professional Fighters League (PFL) heads into the home stretch of its 2021 playoffs this coming Friday, August 27th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

PFL Playoff 3 will be the final stop before the 2021 season’s culminating event, the PFL Championships, which takes place on October 27th.

With the finals matchups in the women’s lightweight, lightweight, welterweight, and heavyweight divisions set, only featherweight and light heavyweight championship bouts remain undetermined.

Headlining PFL Playoff 3 will be a featherweight semifinal showdown between top-seeded Brendan Loughnane of the United Kingdom and No. 4-ranked Movlid Khaybulaev of Russia.

Participating in his second PFL season, Loughnane (21-3) was impressive during the 2019 season, winning both his regular-season bouts but was unable to compete in the playoffs.

This season, Loughnane picked up where he left off as he needed just one round to dispose of Sheymon Moraes in his 2021 season debut, before securing his spot as the top seed with a majority decision win over Tyler Diamond.

Currently riding a seven-fight winning streak and an unbeaten record in PFL, Loughnane looks to finally capture world championship gold.

Standing in Loughnane’s way will be the undefeated Khaybulaev (17-0-1), who has had some experience in the PFL postseason.

Khaybulaev finished as the second seed during the 2019 season but ended up losing to Daniel Pineda (which was later overturned to a No Contest) in the quarterfinals.

This season, Khaybulaev did enough to return to the playoffs, scoring unanimous decision wins over Lazar Stojadinovic and two-time PFL Champion Lance Palmer.

A win on Friday night puts him one step closer to capturing the PFL featherweight championship.

In the co-main event, No.2-ranked Chris Wade of the United States faces compatriot and third-seeded Bubba Jenkins in the other featherweight semifinal pairing.

Following consecutive semifinal appearances in the PFL playoffs as a lightweight, Wade (19-6) made the jump down to featherweight, and it has once again resulted in a postseason berth.

Wade bested Anthony Dizy in his PFL featherweight debut, before scoring a second-round TKO win over Arman Ospanov to lock up the No. 2-seed.

Now, Wade hopes to break into the finals for the first time in his PFL career.

A highly-touted fighter competing in his first season with PFL, Jenkins (16-4) wasted little time in showing why there was so much buzz behind his arrival into the league.

Jenkins, a former BRAVE CF world champion, announced his arrival by handing two-time champion Lance Palmer his first defeat in PFL and then dominated Bobby Moffet en route to the No. 3 spot.

Jenkins has a chance to keep his impressive PFL debut season going by advancing to the finals and competing for another world championship.

In the light heavyweight division, newcomers Antonio Carlos Junior, Cezar Ferreira and Marthin Hamlet all turned in impressive regular-season campaigns to earn the top three playoff spots respectively.

2019 PFL light heavyweight Emiliano Sordi, meanwhile, will try to keep the title around his waist.

Brazil’s Carlos Junior (11-5), the top-seed, will take on Argentina’s Sordi (22-8). On the other hand, Ferreira (14-9) of Brazil will battle Hamlet (7-2) of Norway.