Kayla Harrison’s Quest for Three-Peat Begins at PFL Playoffs in London on Aug. 20

Kayla Harrison will begin her run for a third consecutive Professional Fighters League lightweight championships in earnest on Aug. 20.

The card for the PFL playoff event at the Copperbox Arena in London has been finalized, and Harrison will square off against Czech kickboxer Martina Jindrova in the evening’s featured bout. On the other side of the women’s 155-pound bracket, top seed Larissa Pacheco will face Helena Kolesnyk.

PFL 9 will also include the men’s featherweight semifinals, as Chris Wade takes on Brendan Loughnane, and Ryoji Kudo meets Bubba Jenkins. The main draw airs at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT on ESPN and ESPN+.

“Heading to London is huge for the expansion of the League,” said PFL president of fighter operations Ray Sefo. “We are bringing our brand of MMA to the UK and I’m sure they are going to be as excited as I am to see elite fighters like Kayla Harrison, Chris Wade and Brendan Loughnane compete with so much on the line.”

One of the evening’s “opening card” bouts will feature the debut of Englishwoman Dakota Ditcheva, a 23-year-old three-time muay Thai world champion with a 5-0 mark in MMA. She’ll take on Hassner in a preliminary bout at flyweight.

“We are excited to add Dakota to the global PFL talent roster,” Sefo said. “Dakota’s outstanding skillset and ability, along with her natural charisma fit perfectly with the PFL brand of MMA. We believe the PFL is uniquely placed to take her journey forward on a global scale. Coming from a line of elite uay Thai practitioners, we have confidence in Dakota to go to the very top with the PFL and continue her family’s legacy.”

PFL 9 will stray from the typical format in that the main card will be preceded by a five-bout “opening” card and followed by a four-bout lineup of what the promotion labels on its website as “qualifiers,” which are expected to be for spots in the 2023 season. The opening card airs on ESPN+ at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, while qualifiers begin at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m PT.