PFL Playoffs Shift to New York City for Aug. 18 and Aug. 23 Events

The Professional Fighters League’s 2023 playoffs
will wrap up in New York City over the span of six days.

Via press release, the organization announced Thursday that it
would be staging its second and third playoff events for the 2023
season in Aug. 18 and Aug. 23. Those two shows will post up inside
of The Theater at Madison Square Garden – the recently renamed Hulu
Theater – in New York. That Friday the 18th, heavyweights and
women’s featherweights will decide the finalists. Five days later
on the 23rd, the league will put up its welterweight and
lightweight divisions to determine the final combatants up for the
$1 million prize.

PFL CEO Peter Murray touched on returning to this venue, one that
the PFL has made a second home out of the last few years, stating,
“The PFL is thrilled to return to New York City and the ‘World’s
Most Famous Arena’ with two nights of PFL Playoff action. On August
18 and August 23, the world’s best fighters will enter the PFL
Smartcage with a trip to the 2023 PFL World Championship on the
line. The PFL Regular Season has led to these critical moments,
where elite athletes move one step closer to their $1 million
dreams.”

On June 16, the heavyweights and women’s featherweights will
determine who makes it to those playoffs, with PFL 5 pitting the
various combatants against one another for playoff points.
Currently, Denis
Goltsov leads the pack of big men with six points courtesy of
his first-round drubbing of Cezar
Ferreira. Maurice
Greene, who will headline PFL 5 against former champ Ante Delija,
holds five points alone in second place. The only other heavyweight
with points is Danilo
Marques, who picked up a decision over Yorgan De
Castro, as both Bruno
Cappelozza and Rizvan
Kuniev failed post-fight drug tests.

Over in the women’s bracket, no fighters tested positive for banned
substances, so the bracket currently sees five ladies holding
points. Amber
Leibrock sits in the pole position with six points after
wrecking Martina
Jindrova. In second place currently, Marina
Mokhnatkina serves as the only other female fighter to procure
a stoppage, as she put Yoko
Higashi away with strikes in Round 2 of their April meeting.
Both Larissa
Pacheco and Evelyn
Martins celebrate 3 points apiece, while Olena
Kolesnyk has just two after she missed weight and still beat
Aspen
Ladd by majority decision. The top four scoring combatants from
each weight class earn a spot in the playoffs, which will then
determine the finalists that will compete at a date and location to
be announced.