The second event of the PFL season delivered some exciting action and surprising results.
Held Friday night at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, PFL 2 featured the initial rounds of the bantamweight and women’s flyweight tournaments. Notably, some expected frontrunners were eliminated early from the competition.
In the main event, Marcirley Alves, stepping in on short notice as a second replacement opponent for Leandro Higo, caused a significant upset. Alves defeated former Bellator title challenger Leandro Higo via split decision. Making the most of his unexpected opportunity, Alves displayed strong takedown defense and sharp, effective striking that visibly troubled Higo throughout the bout.
Alves is now scheduled to face prelim winner Jake Hadley in the next round of the tournament. While Alves secured the main event victory, “White Kong” arguably stole the spotlight earlier in the night. The former Cage Warriors flyweight champion successfully applied a rare Scottish Twister submission against Mattheus Mattos in the third round. After a challenging stint in the UFC, Hadley appears to be finding his form in the PFL, becoming only the second fighter in the promotion`s history, after Stevie Ray, to successfully execute this distinctive submission.
The co-main event saw Liz Carmouche swiftly defeat Ilara Joanne to advance in the women’s flyweight tournament semifinals. Carmouche had previously mentioned that securing a finish via body shots was on her MMA bucket list, and she accomplished precisely that, dropping Joanne with a knee to the body and following up with further strikes to secure a first-round stoppage.
Carmouche will next face Elora Dana, who secured her spot in the semifinals by submitting Diana Avsaragova with a neck crank in the opening bout of the evening.
Elsewhere on the main card, Mando Gutierrez defeated Francesco Nuzzi via first-round rear-naked choke, and Justin Wetzell secured a unanimous decision victory over Kasum Kasumov. These two victorious fighters will now meet each other in the semifinals scheduled for June.
In the featured preliminary bout, former Bellator women’s flyweight champion Juliana Velasquez suffered a surprising upset loss to Ekaterina Shakalova. Shakalova was dominant and quickly secured a rear-naked choke submission just over two minutes into the first round.
Shakalova will proceed to face Jena Bishop in the second round of the women’s flyweight tournament. Bishop earned her spot by securing a competitive decision victory over Kana Watanabe earlier on the card.
Below are the complete PFL 2 results from the event:
- Marcirley Alves def. Leandro Higo via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Liz Carmouche def. Ilara Joanne via TKO (knee and punches to the body) — Round 1, 1:25
- Mando Gutierrez def. Francesco Nuzzi via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 4:13
- Justin Wetzell def. Kasum Kasumov via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ekaterina Shakalova def. Julianna Velasquez via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 2:05
- Jake Hadley def. Matheus Mattos via submission (Scottish twister) — Round 3, 2:16
- Jena Bishop def. Kana Watanabe via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Elora Dana def. Diana Avsaragova via submission (neck crank) — Round 1, 4:48
