Fight Facts: PFL 2024 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: 1,195
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 126

The Professional Fighters League hurled everything it had at its post-Thanksgiving gala event in Saudi Arabia, jam-packed with more title fights than one can shake a stick at. PFL 2024 Championships featured the most stoppages on a single card, the most titles at any of its events and the most bouts run in one day.

You Got Lucky: PFL 2024 Championships closed with 15 pro MMA bouts on the docket, including 10 title fights. The latter is the most of any major organization, while the former the highest number of matches on a single World Series of Fighting or PFL show.

More Violence: Of those 15 tilts, 11 of those ended inside the distance. While not concluding with the highest overall finish rate, the total number of stoppages exceeds any previous WSOF or PFL event.

Try Again Next Year: Two former PFL tourney victors competed in an effort to win another $1 million: Brendan Loughnane and Impa Kasanganay. Both fighters were turned away at night’s end, creating six new champions across the major weight divisions.

A Zero Fire Sale: Seven combatants entered this event with unbeaten records: Timur Khizriev, Dakota Ditcheva, Shamil Musaev, Magomed Umalatov, Mohammad Alaqraa, Slim Trabelsi and Abraham Bably. With Musaev facing Umalatov, and Trabelsi taking on Bably, one of each had to fall. Alaqraa is the lone one of the four who took on a foe that had previously tasted defeat.

New Money: With none of the six newly crowned beltholders sharing any experience in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, this tournament is the second where no winner first competed in the UFC. This first occurred in 2019.

Better Than Expected: The first five major tourney finals all ended by stoppage, with five of six overall concluding inside the distance. This makes this batch of tournament finals have the highest finish rate (83.3%) of any by the PFL thus far.

You’ve Got Some Red on You: In the main attraction, Khizriev bloodied and battered Loughnane en route to a decision. While remaining unbeaten at 18-0, “Imam” has only finished his opponent in four of those outings. He has gone the distance in seven straight fights.

Welcome to the Big Leagues: Ditcheva became the youngest champ in PFL history, passing Natan Schulte when he won the 2018 lightweight grand prix. She also serves as the first to win a tournament in the women’s flyweight division.

Instant Pound-for-Pound Jump: As a professional, the 26-year-old has stopped 13 of her 14 foes in victory. Her lone decision came against Paula Cristian dos Santos Silva prior to her PFL run, with the Brit only getting out of the second round one other time.

Probably Gets It Next Year: With nine finishes in her nine PFL fights, Ditcheva is two shy of Kayla Harrison’s record among all female WSOF-PFL fighters. She trails the overall record holder by three.

If You Kill the Body: Including her drubbing of Taila Santos, Ditcheva has earned six of her wins in the promotion with strikes to the body. She has as many body shot finishes as every other fighter put together under the WSOF and PFL banners.

Blazing Uppercuts: In under one minute, Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov wrecked Kasanganay with a volley of punches. The 58-second bludgeoning for the man from Turkmenistan clocks in as the third-quickest in PFL and WSOF championship history.

Revolving Belts: The light heavyweight and heavyweight brackets are the lone divisions to stage six tournaments that have never repeated with champions. Yagshimuradov thwarted Kasanganay’s attempt to win another, while Denis Goltsov finally won the heavyweight crown after five tries.

Plenty of Vs: Musaev advanced his flawless record to 18-0 and a draw by punching out Umalatov. He is tied with several other combatants across the sport with that many wins and no losses, along with Khizriev, Movsar Evloev, Umar Nurmagomedov, Usman Nurmagomedov and Shavkat Rakhmonov. They all share the lead in that category.

Silent but Deadly: By clobbering Umalatov, Musaev earned his 12th knockout across his 18 wins. Combined with his submissions, “Silent Assassin” has finished a foe in 78% of his victories.

All the Russians: Gadzhi Rabadanov is one of four Russians to win gold at night’s end, doing so by faceplanting Brent Primus to earn the lightweight strap. No past year had ever been so successful for Russian PFL combatants.

Get Rich or Die Trying: Goltsov is the lone competitor to attempt to win a season on five different occasions. He finally broke through, choking out Oleg Popov to earn $1 million.

My Record: Later on the card, Ditcheva claimed stoppage no. 9 on her PFL resume; with his win, Goltsov now holds sole possession of the company lead. Following his submission of Popov, Goltsov has finished his foe on 12 separate occasions.

Wake Up in a Bad Position: Goltsov is the second fighter to land a technical submission via triangle choke in the organization’s cage. The first to do so was Steve Carl against Joshua Burkman at WSOF 6 in 2013.

Luck of the Draw: Sparking Maraoune Bellagouit in the first round, Abdullah Al-Qahtani rounded out the MENA finals at 145 pounds. He is the lone winner of the four MENA victors to do so coming off a loss.

Power of the Pyramid: Advancing his stoppage rate to 77% by shellacking Alaqraa, Omar El Dafrawy laid claim to the MENA tournament championship at 170 pounds. The majority of the Egyptian’s wins have come via strikes.

No Way Up to the Global Season: Ali Taleb stole the show early by securing the bantamweight tourney title in MENA, knocking Rachid El Hazoume out in under 90 seconds to achieve this. He has involved the judges in just two of his 12 career wins.

Properly Iranian: After losing two in 2019, Mohsen Mohammadseifi never looked back. The 2024 MENA champion at 155 pounds, the Iranian has won his last seven bouts, while fighting past Round 3 for the first time in his career by beating Georges Eid by decision.

Wears the No. 1 Headband: “The Afro-Samurai” Mansour Barnaoui debuted in PFL by throttling Alfie Davis with a rear-naked choke late in the third round. The Frenchman has notched 21 of his 22 triumphs inside the distance.

Spanish Flying: Starting the show off with a 48-second head kick KO of Joao Vitor Ramos Dantos, Costello van Steenis now posts an even 75% finish rate as a pro. The Spaniard becomes one of seven combatants to earn a stoppage via head kick in under a minute with the promotion.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into the PFL 2024 Championships, Umalatov (17 fights), Alaqraa (seven fights) and Bably (five fights) had never been defeated; Santos (25 fights), Popov (20 fights), Bellagouit (seven fights) and Davis (22 fights) had never been finished and Perez had never been submitted (10 fights).