Storylines to Watch at 2023 PFL Championships

Repeats are always special, no matter which sport experiences them.

Two mixed martial artists—lightweight Olivier Aubin-Mercier and welterweight Sadibou Sy—will look to go back-to-back and claim another $1 million in their respective Professional Fighters League divisions at the 2023 PFL Championships this Friday in Washington, D.C. A third, women’s featherweight Larissa Pacheco, also seeks her second straight title, albeit in a different weight class.

Aubin-Mercier draws the headlining assignment opposite Clay Collard at 155 pounds. The Tristar Gym rep punched his ticket to the lightweight final when he put away Bruno Miranda with punches in the second round of their Aug. 23 pairing, which followed regular-season victories over Shane Burgos and Anthony Romero. Aubin-Mercier, 34, enters the cage on the strength of a career-best nine-fight winning streak. Sy, meanwhile, faces perhaps the steepest climb back to the top of the mountain. The 36-year-old Swede meets Magomed Magomedkerimov—the man who handed him most recent defeat in 2021—in the 170-pound final. Sy has since rattled off seven consecutive wins but steps into the rematch as the underdog. Finally, most observers expect Pacheco to get past Marina Mokhnatkina without much issue in the women’s featherweight final. The Brazilian has established herself as one of the sport’s most feared female competitors, having authored seven first-round finishes during her current nine-fight tear.

The potential for multiple repeats is but one storyline to watch at the 2023 PFL Championships. Here are four more:

Massive Appeal

Denis Goltsov appears to have finally hit his stride. Long viewed as a future star and champion, the Russian sambo practitioner marches into his heavyweight final against Renan Ferreira with momentum to burn and a seven-figure payday in his sights. Goltsov, 33, stopped all three of his 2023 opponents inside one round—he subdued Jordan Heiderman with an arm-triangle choke in the semifinals—but finds himself pitted against one of the sport’s true physical specimens. At 6-foot-8 and wielding a ridiculous 85 inches of reach, Ferreira casts an imposing shadow. The 33-year-old Brazilian has delivered nine of his 11 career victories by knockout or technical knockout, four of them in less than a minute. No one expects the heavyweights to go the full 25 minutes. Will Goltsov take the next step in his development?

Golden Goose

One of the PFL’s lynchpins, two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison has been notably absent from the company’s latest campaign—until now. The American Top Team export makes her first appearance in nearly a calendar year when she takes on Aspen Ladd in a three-round catchweight showcase. It was originally booked as Harrison’s long-awaited return to the featherweight division, but the exit of original opponent Julia Budd necessitated a short-notice switch to Ladd at 150 pounds. The Middletown, Ohio, native has not competed since she fell from the ranks of the unbeaten in a unanimous decision loss to Pacheco in the 2022 women’s lightweight final. On the other side of the equation, Ladd tries to build on her second-round submission of Karolina Sobek in June. Will Harrison’s latest outing reveal anything about her intentions in 2024 and beyond?

Genetic Advantage

History tells us that bloodlines matter in athletics. Joshua Silveira, a former two-division Legacy Fighting Alliance champion and son of Marcus “Conan” Silveira, has designs on boosting his resume and fattening his bank account when he toes the line against Impa Kasanganay in the light heavyweight final. A decorated amateur wrestler who operates out of the esteemed American Top Team camp, “Coninha” advanced to the 205-pound championship by stopping Sam Kei, Delan Monte and Ty Flores in succession, all in the first round. His degree of difficulty figures to increase against Kasanganay, a toolsy Kill Cliff Fight Club product who enjoyed a brief cup of coffee in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Can Silveira live up to his last name and join the PFL’s pantheon of champions at the age of 30?

A Race Against Time

Derek Brunson, a little more than a month shy of his 40th birthday, believes he still has something to offer. The well-respected veteran makes his organizational debut against the heavy-handed Ray Cooper III in a three-round middleweight attraction. Brunson compiled a 17-8 record across his 25 appearances in Strikeforce and the UFC, establishing himself as a perennial Top 10 competitor at 185 pounds. Recent results have not been kind to the Wilmington, North Carolina, native, as consecutive defeats to Jared Cannonier and Dricus Du Plessis sent him back to the unemployment line. Cooper offers no soft landing. The Hawaiian sports 23 finishes among his 25 professional victories. Can Brunson hold off Father Time a little while longer?