Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL FIGHTS: 1,039
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 112
The Professional Fighters League is back with another Regular Season, this time with a healthy crop of Bellator MMA crossovers in the mix. Abolishing women’s featherweight to introduce women’s flyweight, this new weight class ended the evening with more first-round finishes than its heavyweight counterpart. PFL 2024 1 featured a dominant crew of Russians, one of the most lopsided betting lines in company history and the first heavyweight ever to miss weight.
The Russian Flags Are Back: Four Russian heavyweights competed at this event, and all four prevailed. Valentin Moldavsky, Denis Goltsov, Sergey Bilostenniy and Oleg Popov all picked up wins over foreign adversaries, with three scoring bonus point-earning knockouts.
Scraping the Mold Off: Former Bellator interim heavyweight champ Moldavsky made his presence known in this organization by laying waste to Ante Delija in just over two minutes. This marked his first finish in nearly six years while serving as the second knockout as a pro.
Gotta Golt: Runner-up of the 2023 PFL season, Goltsov started this new one off with four points courtesy of a late stoppage of Linton Vassell. The Russian big man holds 27 of his 33 pro wins via stoppage.
Two Bellators Nullifying One Another: Liz Carmouche completed her trilogy with Juliana Velasquez by claiming a unanimous decision victory. The 40-year-old celebrates a win via submission, knockout and decision over Velasquez.
We Knew That Was Coming: Remaining flawless as a pro, Dakota Ditcheva picked up her 11th win after 11 fights by crushing Lisa Mauldin in the opening round. Ten of those have come inside the distance, including nine by knockout, with seven of those coming in Round 1.
Why Even Bet at That Point: Closing as an astonishing -5000 favorite, Ditcheva tied Kayla Harrison against Bobbi Jo Dalziel in 2019 as the heaviest-favored fighter in organizational history. The minus-money fighter has won all 11 encounters involving someone with a line higher than -2500.
Boo This Man, Boo Him: Surpassing the heavyweight limit by a pound, Daniel James became the first heavyweight in the company to miss weight. James put Marcelo Golm away in the first round and pocketed five points due to the penalty for a weight miss.
Still Durable as Ever: Bilostenniy handed Blagoy Ivanov his first defeat as a World Series of Fighting-PFL fighter. “Baga” served as the heavyweight champ from 2015 to 2018, when he vacated it to sign elsewhere.
The Presumptive Favorite: Taila Santos was the other prevailing competitor with astronomical betting odds at this event, coming in at -1800 against Ilara Joanne. Santos easily dispatched her foe via first-round rear-naked choke.
Once Tall, Now Small: One-time Bellator fighter Popov finished Steve Mowry with strikes in the second round, pushing his win streak to 15. Eleven of those victories have come inside the distance.
Negateev, Negateev, Negateev: Via unanimous decision, Kana Watanabe outworked Shanna Young to pick up three points. She also made Young the only fighter with negative points, as Young missed weight and ended her night at -1 on the standings.
That Girl is Poison: Jena Bishop went home with six points as one of three flyweights to land first-round stoppages. In comparison, only two heavyweight tourney participants rendered finishes in the opening stanza.
Punched the Crazy into Him: As a +800 underdog, Dimitre Ivy staged the biggest betting upset of the year thus far by one-upping Lucas Brennan (-1800) on the scorecards. The last fighter on the roster favored so highly that still lost came back in 2018, when +925 Ray Cooper III punched out a -1400 Jake Shields.
Wild Line Movement, No Big Deal: Bryce Meredith handled Ty Johnson en route to a decision win, advancing his young record to 6-0 as a pro. He started his career with two knockouts, then landed two rear-naked chokes, and he has now picked up a pair of unanimous verdicts.
Never Say Never Again: Coming into PFL 2024 1, Velasquez had never lost on the scorecards (14 fights), Mauldin (nine fights) and Mowry (13 fights) had never been finished and Hackett had never been submitted (six fights).