Fight Facts: 2023 PFL 2

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.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL FIGHTS: 887
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 98

The Professional Fighters League pounded out most of the matchups for heavyweights and female featherweights in its second regular season card this year. Barring one battle of big men next week, the first leg of these two divisions is complete, and the event brought perfectly mixed results. 2023 PFL 2 featured a tougher win than expected for a former champ, the return to form for a heavyweight slugger and a new rule change resulting in a two-point award for a triumphant scale-tipper.

Start and Stop All Day: The pattern of the event remained constant for all 10 matchups. The first fight ended by knockout, while the second match resulted in a decision. This alternating string of a knockout followed by a bout going the distance did not falter.

Rough Cut to 145: For just the third time across 20 professional wins, Larissa Pacheco needed to involve the judges in the final say. Her decision victory over Julia Budd is her second in a row, lowering her overall finish rate to 85%.

By the Skin of Her Teeth: Pacheco earned her ninth win on the PFL roster by outpointing Budd. She trails only Harrison with the most victories for a female fighter (14), and there are just nine total names ahead of her on that leaderboard including Harrison.

Bruno Bashing: 2021 PFL heavyweight champ Bruno Cappelozza earned the only first-round finish of all the heavyweights on the lineup, earning himself six points. All of his victorious regular season matches have seen him prevail by knockout in Round 1.

Sweet Fistic Revenge: Cappelozza boosted his sky-high knockout rate to 94% by demolishing Matheus Scheffel. He has never performed a submission.

Live by the Punch: Suffering his 10th loss as a professional, Scheffel succumbed to strikes in his rematch with Cappelozza. A whole 20 of his 27 pro outings have ended by knockout, win or lose.

Rules Are Meant to Be Broken: Ahead of her match with Aspen Ladd, Olena Kolesnyk missed weight by .4 pounds. Due to a change in the PFL rules, heavy fighters are now eligible to win playoff points, subject to a one-point deduction. The two points awarded to “Cannon” make her the first fighter in PFL history to come in over the limit and still earn points towards the next round.

Who Saw That One Coming? The Ukrainian came in as one of the larger plus-money fighters to compete at 2023 PFL 2, and she recorded the majority decision victory over Ladd as a +425 underdog. Her betting upset is the largest for a PFL match since Pacheco (+550) beat Kayla Harrison (-800) last year.

Eagle Export: Recent PFL signee Rizvan Kuniev capped off the prelims by claiming a decision over Renan Ferreira. The Russian ground out the taller fighter, forcing Ferreira to hear the final bell for just the third time as a professional -- when including a no contest with Klidson Abreu from 2022.

Knitting Up a Knockout: With a series of knee strikes and punches, submission artist Maurice Greene clobbered Marcelo Nunes in the second frame to pick up five points. “The Crochet Boss” has earned 82% of his career wins inside the distance, but this was the first time he had landed a finish in Round 2.

Why Waste Time: Falling victim to Greene’s strikes, Brazilian grappler Nunes lost for the first time since 2016. As an 11-fight professional, Nunes has still never left a match in the hands of the judges, and has not yet even reached a third round.

Head Shot, Dread: Performing the only first-round finish among the female fighters to compete on the lineup, Amber Leibrock blasted Martina Jindrova with a head kick at 2:19. Her six points position her in the lead in her weight class, while she has now earned 86% of her wins inside the distance.

She Still Has Spots: Two-time Challenger Series participant Evelyn Martins reached the tournament and topped Karolina Sobek on the scorecards. The 20-year-old is now 5-0 as a pro, with four of those bouts ending by decision.

Yoko Oh No: Sambo practitioner Marina Mokhnatkina welcomed Yoko Higashi to the promotion by pounding her out with barrage of punches in the second period. The stoppage due to strikes is the first for the Russian, who had only performed submissions in her past finishes.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into 2023 PFL 2, Ferreira had never lost on the scorecards (14 fights), Jindrova (nine fights) and Higashi (10 fights) had never been knocked out and Sobek had never been defeated (four fights).