Fight Facts: PFL 2022 Championships

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: 825
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 87

The 2022 season of Professional Fighters League concluded with a dramatic changing of the guard, as six fresh champions were crowned at night’s end. The promotion’s first pay-per-view fight card largely delivered on its promise for excitement, while opening many questions that can be answered next year. The 2022 PFL Championships featured one of the biggest – but not the biggest – betting upsets this year, one of the later finishes ever seen in the company’s cage and the fourth time being the charm for one PFL OG.

New Is Always Better: When the dust settled, all six new champions had never won a past season. This had never happened in subsequent tourneys from PFL since it launched in 2018, as multiple fighters like Lance Palmer, Natan Schulte and Kayla Harrison repeated over the years.

Actual World Championships: The champions from this season hail from six different countries: Brazil, England, Croatia, Canada, Sweden and Australia. This marks the most diverse championship cohort of any PFL tournament, with multiple Americans winning belts in each of the past three iterations.

Never Tell Her the Odds: At +550, Larissa Pacheco serves as the biggest betting underdog to win a World Series of Fighting-PFL championship fight by beating -800 Harrison. She also achieved the most substantial upset of any female fighter to set foot in the company’s cage.

Not Even Overall Top Five in the PFL: Pacheco’s triumph as a +550 underdog will measure as the second-largest upset in the PFL this year. Matheus Scheffel at +600 defeating -900 Bruno Cappelozza in June had higher odds, while the Klidson Abreu-Renan Ferreira bout with a +650 victor was later overturned to a no contest.

No Shame There: Pacheco’s finish rate fell to 89% with the win, procuring her second career decision victory by topping Harrison on the scorecards. Her last five appearances had concluded by first-round knockout in her favor.

How Do You Like Me Now, Dana? Since his snub on the first episode of Season 3 of Dana White's Contender Series, Brendan Loughnane rattled off eight wins in nine bouts, most importantly knocking Bubba Jenkins out to claim the featherweight prize. On his way up, he topped five former Ultimate Fighting Championship or Bellator MMA fighters to get there.

Looking for Killers: Across four PFL featherweight finals, Loughnane is the first to finish a fight to take home the gold. The previous victors of two-time champ Palmer and Movlid Khaybulaev both needed the entireties of their 25-minute encounters to prevail.

No Late Takedown: The stoppage for Loughnane came at 2:38 of the fourth frame. His clocks in as the fourth-latest finish in organizational history, and one of only six to come after the third round.

Ante Way, Way Up: Ante Delija made the most of his second PFL heavyweight tourney, smashing Matheus Scheffel in the first round to win the title. He was the third fighter in company history to both win and lose in tournament final matches, while both Harrison and Pacheco also joined this unusual club at night’s end.

Re-Budding Talent: Breaking the first losing streak of her career, Aspen Ladd moved up to featherweight and edged Julia Budd by split decision. Prior to Budd, Ladd’s only wins on the scorecards came against Sijara Eubanks.

Had a Plan, Stuck to It, Got Rich: Olivier Aubin-Mercier smoked Steven Ray with a right hand to hoist the giant check and million dollars that comes with it. Since leaving the UFC in 2019, the Canadian lightweight has rattled off six straight wins in the PFL ranks to reach the top, and this was his first finish among them.

Persistence is Key: In his fourth tournament, Sadibou Sy won a five-round verdict over Dilano Taylor to begin his brief reign as the PFL welterweight king. He is the only competitor with the organization to reach the playoffs in all four seasons.

New Challenger Approaching: Taylor ultimately fell short to Sy after 25 minutes in the cage, but he did become the first competitor from the Challenger Series to reach a division’s finals. Taylor did not even get signed at CS 2, and reached the regular season as a replacement.

Poor Bedside Manner: After the conclusion of Round 2, the doctors advised referee Keith Peterson that the cut on Omari Akhmedov’s face proved too severe. Rob Wilkinson emerged as the light heavyweight victor of the 2022 season, having clocked the lowest amount of cage time (20:26) of any champ from start to finish.

Millionaire Matchmaker: Wilkinson performed four knockouts to run through the 205-pound gauntlet and earn the million-dollar award. “Razor Rob” is the first champion to knock out every opponent in a PFL tourney season.

Million-Dollar Scar Tissue: The doctor stoppage loss for Akhmedov is the first to prompt medical intervention in the PFL since 2018. It is the eighth time a WSOF-PFL bout has ended in such a fashion, with light heavyweights accounting for more than any other weight class.

Moraes on Moraes Violence: Exacting revenge for their WSOF 22 fight from 2014, Sheymon Moraes put Marlon Moraes away early in the third round to stage the comeback. S. Moraes had never before recorded a stoppage any later than 4:59 of the second frame as a pro.

May Thy Chin Chip and Shatter: M. Moraes came into the PFL 2022 Championships with 11 wins in 11 past WSOF outings as the longtime bantamweight champion. His featherweight debut with the company went poorly, suffering his first loss as a newly branded PFL fighter.

Nasty Natan: Within two rounds, Schulte punished Jeremy Stephens and tapped him with an arm-triangle choke. The victory was Schulte’s fifth by submission under the PFL banner, tying Palmer and Vinny Magalhaes for the second-most in league history. Harrison’s six hold the top spot.

MMK Is Back: On the undercard, Magomed Magomedkerimov defeated Gleison Tibau by unanimous decision. The Russian earned his 13th victory fighting for this company, placing him with the third-most behind Harrison (14) and Palmer (16).

Nonstandard Agreement: Their bout a pre-planned 175-pound catchweight, Magomedkerimov and Tibau battled it out in the first bout booked outside of a standard weight class at a PFL tournament event. It is only the second in overall PFL history, with Jarrah Al-Silawi vs. Michael Lilly taking place at 177 pounds at CS 2.

Dangerous Is Right: “Dangerous” Dakota Ditcheva plunked Katherine Corogenes with a clean right hand to pick up her seventh win in seven pro fights. The Brit has earned six of those by knockout, with five coming in Round 1.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into the PFL 2022 Championships, Harrison had never been defeated (15 fights), Budd had never dropped consecutive bouts (20 fights) and Taylor had never lost on the scorecards (12 fights).