Early Picks for the PFL $1-Mil Purses & Titles

[ChinaMMABlog]

So the Professional Fighters League (PFL) released their roster and schedule today.

They have 72 total fighters competing in six divisions (145, 155, 170, 185, 205, 265), with the season winners raking in $1-million and runners up $200K.



While it's still too early to make real picks (all the seeds and matchups have yet to be announced), it's still fun to speculate, so here are my picks:

Featherweight
Alexandre Almeida
Max Coga
Lee Coville
Marcos Galvao
Andre Harrison
Magomed Idrisov
Bekbulat Magomedov
Nazareno Malegarie
Lance Palmer - supposedly Palmer is fighting Magomedov (former WSOF bantamweight champ) in the first round, which totally seems like a terrible way to kill off one of the crossover fighters from the old promotion, but Palmer's wrestling is just too damn dominant for any of these other guys to handle, not to mention that several of these fighters are really bantamweights.
Steven Siler
Jumabieke Tuerxun
Timur Valiev

Lightweight
Will Brooks - After a nightmare of a run in the UFC, Brooks will turn it around against lesser competition. This division is one of the tougher ones, with High and Wade also legit contenders, but Brooks will bring the title home with his wrestling and pressure.
Luiz Firmino
Brian Foster
Jason High
Yuki Kawana
Islam Mamedov
Rashid Magomedov
Ramsey Nijem
Natan Schulte
Thiago Tavares
Chris Wade
Robert Watley

Welterweight
Paul Bradley
Ray Cooper III
Pavel Kusch
Abubakar Nurmagomedov
Jake Shields
Rick Story
Herman Terrado
Bojan Velickovic - if we're talking about what's best for ratings, then a Shields vs. Nurmagomedov final would be ideal for PFL (recall there was a "brawl" between the Diaz bros and Khabib's crew back in the day and this could revive the Skrap Pack vs. Eagles MMA rivalry), but have a feeling that many of the top seeds will cancel each other out, opening the door for Velickovic, who's technically sound everywhere (remember, he went the distance w/ Darren Till last year)
Yuri Villefort
Jonatan Westin
David Zawada
Joao Zeferino

Middleweight
Shamil Gamzatov
Anderson Goncalves
Eddie Gordon - Wishful thinking here, but Gordon has size, experience, and cardio. Thinking he decisions his way to a title.
Rex Harris
John Howard
Andre Lobato
Abus Magomedov
Bruno Santos
Sadibou Sy
Louis Taylor
Gasan Umalatov
Danilo Villefort

Light Heavyweight
Jamie Abdallah
Bazigit Ataev
Jason Butcher
Rakim Cleveland
Maxim Grishin
Brandon Halsey - Because wrestling (and no more cutting down to 185) ...
Vinny Magalhaes
Ronny Markes
Sean O'Connell
Smealinho Rama
Dan Spohn
Rashid Yusupov

Heavyweight
Caio Alencar
Francimar Barroso
Josh Copeland
Daniel Gallemore
Denis Goltsov
Jake Heun
Valdrin Istrefi
Shawn Jordan
Mike Kyle
Jack May
Jared Rosholt - Something about Murphy's Law ... Rosholt is probably the least ideal champion on the entire roster because he's so one-dimensional and boring AF. Could they really not re-sign Blagoi Ivanov who's known the be a crafty finisher? Some fun fighters in this division, but Rosholt will slow them all down, put them on their backs, and wrestle hump them for 15 minutes (10 min in the playoffs, 25 min in the finals)
Nick Rossborough

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Good thread.

Featherweight: I got Andre Harrison. He beat Lance Palmer has looked the most impressive out of all the Featherweights. I do think Bekbulat Magomedov and Timur Valiev (former WSOF BW fighters) won't be that easy to put out.

Lightweight: Rashid Magomedov will be my pick. Brooks will definitely dominate in some way or another. Magomedov probably stops him, however. I'd give Luiz Firmino a chance before Will Brooks.

Welterweight: I've always wanted to see Abubakar Nurmagomedov fight Shields/Fitch in the old WSOF, but the whole Eagles MMA/Skrap Pack thing never occurred to me. I forgot about that brawl between them in like 2015. Good catch. I think those two are far beyond the other competitors in division. I'd pick Nurmagomedov by being a decade younger than Shields.

Middleweight: Picking a MW winner was kind of a struggle for me. Pretty weak weight class this one is. If Shamil Gamzatov is negatively affected by the weight cut, then I will pick Louis Taylor.

Light-Heavyweight: Agree with the Halz. I guess his biggest challenges there will be Honny Markes and Smealinho Rama.

Heavyweight: Caio Alencar fucked The Big Show up during one of the final WSOF events. I'll go with Alencar for that one. Shawn Jordan will be a close second.

 

[Falconkick]

I got Luiz Firmino at LW

 

[tehMoose]

Rashid will smash Brooks

 

[The ScorpioN]

Rashid would be my pick, but he's undersized for LW. Brooks can grind him out.

At FW he'd steamroll the entire tournament.

 

[MMALOPEZ]

I’m picking Goltsov in the HW division