Top Reasons to Catch PFL 9

The road to $1 million grows ever narrower in the Professional Fighters League, where eight men are set to separate more wheat from the chaff.

Brendan Loughnane will head out to continue his pursuit of a second league championship in three years when his featherweight semifinal opposite Kai Kamaka III headlines PFL 9 this Friday at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. A PFL staple since 2019, Loughnane has compiled an 11-2 record across his 13 appearances in the organization. Loughnane, the top seed at 145 pounds, enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back technical knockouts of Pedro Carvalho and Justin Gonzales. He enjoyed a reign as a Full Contact Contender champion, reached the semifinals on “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” and got his hand raised on Dana White’s Contender Series prior to his arrival in the PFL. On the other side of the equation, Kamaka has rattled off five straight victories. The 29-year-old Hawaiian qualified for the postseason by posting unanimous decisions over Bubba Jenkins and Pedro Carvalho. Kamaka operates out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, where he develops his skills and puts together game plans under coaches Eric Nicksick, Eddie Barraco and Renato Canuto.

In the other featherweight semifinal, second-seeded Gabriel Braga locks horns with the unbeaten Timur Khizriev. Braga, now 15-1, suffered his only career defeat to Jesus Pinedo in the 2023 featherweight final. Back-to-back regular-season decision victories over Brett Johns and Enrique Barzola launched Khizriev into the playoffs with a perfect 16-0 record.

Meanwhile, Magomed Umalatov, the No. 2 seed at 170 pounds, takes on longtime Bellator MMA standout Neiman Gracie when their welterweight semifinal serves as the co-main event. The undefeated Umalatov operates out of the star-studded American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida. He improved to 16-0 with a three-round unanimous decision over Andrey Koreshkov and a first-round anaconda choke submission of Brennan Ward during the regular season. Umalatov boasts 13 finishes among his 16 professional wins. Gracie, 35, figures to provide plenty of resistance. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt backed into the postseason as a late-notice alternate for Don Madge—a man he outpointed to a unanimous verdict at PFL 6 on June 28. Gracie has gone a disappointing 4-5 since he started his career with nine straight victories.

In the other welterweight semifinal, top-seeded Golden Team export Shamil Musaev puts his 16-0-1 record on the line in a rematch with Murad Ramazanov. Musaev cut down Ramazanov with punches in the second round of their regular-season encounter some two months ago.

In addition to the semifinal showdowns in the featherweight and welterweight divisions, here are two other reasons to catch PFL 9:

Hawaiian Punch

Ray Cooper III returns to the welterweight division—provided he can make the 171-pound limit without issue—when he collides with Kill Cliff Fight Club’s Mukhamed Berkhamov in the featured prelim. The two men have 40 wins and 34 finishes between them, which makes for a compelling and combustible pairing. Cooper was the PFL welterweight champion in 2019 and again in 2021, banking a total of $2 million for his efforts. The brick-fisted Hawaiian has failed to duplicate his success in ensuing seasons, as he has lost three of his past four bouts. Berkhamov opposes him. The 30-year-old waltzes into his promotional debut looking to recapture the form that not long ago made him an Absolute Championship Berkut titleholder and one of Europe’s top prospects. Berkhamov has not competed since he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Herman Terrado at Bellator 300 on Oct. 7.

High-Floor Commodities

Veteran featherweights toe the line against one another on the undercard, where Barzola meets Tyler Diamond in a battle to determine the lead alternate in the 145-pound playoffs. Barzola enters the cage in a bit of a tailspin, having suffered consecutive losses to Adam Borics and the aforementioned Khizriev in his two PFL appearances. The luta livre stylist won Season 2 of “The Ultimate Fighter Latin America” in 2015 and enjoyed a 10-fight run in the UFC, going 6-3-1 before parting ways with the organization. Diamond, 33, hangs his hat at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. A former Global Knockout champion, he was a semifinalist on “The Ultimate Fighter 27” in 2018 but failed to nail down a spot on the UFC roster in a majority decision defeat to Bryce Mitchell at the finale.