| PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants | ||||
| Promotion | Professional Fighters League | |||
| Date | October 19, 2024 | |||
| Venue | The Mayadeen | |||
| City | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Professional Fighters League that took place on October 19, 2024, at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. [1] [2]
The event marked the promotion's fifth visit to Riyadh and first since PFL MENA 3 (2024) in September 2024. [3]
A heavyweight superfight title bout between former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou and 2023 PFL heavyweight winner Renan Ferreira headlined the event. [4]
A women's featherweight superfight title bout between the Bellator Women's Featherweight Champion (also former Invicta FC, Strikeforce and UFC Women's Featherweight Champion) Cris Cyborg and 2022 PFL Women's Lightweight and 2023 Featherweight winner Larissa Pacheco took place at the co-main event. [5]
A Bellator Middleweight Championship bout and rematch between champion Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards took place at this event. [6] The pairing previously met at Bellator 299 in September 2023, which Eblen won by third-round knockout. [7] The pairing was previously scheduled to meet at Bellator Champions Series 5, but the bout was rescheduled to this event. [8]
A bantamweight bout between former interim Bellator Bantamweight Champion Raufeon Stots and Marcos Breno took place at the event. [9] They were previously scheduled to meet at Bellator Champions Series 4, but the bout was removed from the event for unknown reasons. [10]
| Main card (ESPN+ PPV) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Heavyweight | Francis Ngannou | def. | Renan Ferreira | KO (punches) | 1 | 3:32 | [a] |
| Women's Featherweight | Cris Cyborg | def. | Larissa Pacheco | Decision (unanimous) (49–46, 49–46, 49–46) | 5 | 5:00 | [b] |
| Middleweight | Johnny Eblen (c) | def. | Fabian Edwards | Decision (unanimous) (48–47, 48–47, 48–47) | 5 | 5:00 | [c] |
| Featherweight | Zafar Mohsen | vs. | Husein Kadimagomaev | NC (overturned) | 3 | 5:00 | [d] |
| Lightweight | Paul Hughes | def. | A. J. McKee | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary card (ESPN+) | |||||||
| Bantamweight | Raufeon Stots | def. | Marcos Breno | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 3 | 3:01 | |
| Lightweight | Makkasharip Zaynukov | def. | Dedrek Sanders | Decision (unanimous) (30–26, 30–26, 30–26) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Featherweight | Ibragim Ibragimov | def. | Nacho Campos | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Featherweight | Taha Bendaoud | def. | Tariq Ismail | Submission (triangle choke) | 2 | 3:51 | |
On December 2, news surfaced that Mohsen had submitted a fight night drug test sample that was flagged positive, subsequently his win was overturned to a no contest and he was banned from competition for a year and fined an undisclosed amount. [12]
Cristiane Justino Venâncio, known professionally as Cris Cyborg and formerly by her married name Cristiane Santos, is a Brazilian-American professional mixed martial artist and professional boxer who competes in Bellator MMA, where she is the current Bellator Women's Featherweight Champion having held the title since January 2020, and the inaugural PFL Super Fights Women's Featherweight Champion. She is also a former UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta FC World Featherweight Champion. She is the only MMA fighter in history to become a Grand Slam Champion, holding world championships across five major MMA promotions. Cyborg is widely regarded as one of the greatest female mixed martial artists of all time.
Ali Isaevich Isaev is a Russian-Azerbaijani professional mixed martial artist and former amateur wrestler who competed in the Heavyweight division. He has also formerly competed for Bellator MMA, Fight Nights Global and Professional Fighters League (PFL), where he was the 2019 Heavyweight Tournament Champion. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in men's freestyle wrestling at 125 kilos where Isaev placed 17th.
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