Magomed Umalatov remains undefeated.
PFL 3 took place Friday night at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena, kicking off the welterweight and featherweight seasons. Umalatov faced Andrei Koreshkov in the main event, and the undefeated American Top Team product maintained his perfect record, dominating the former Bellator welterweight champion to earn a unanimous decision victory. Umalatov’s grappling and power punches proved to be too much for Koreshkov, and Koreshkov suffered several injuries during the bout, but managed to survive until the final buzzer.
This will be Umalatov’s third season in the PFL, and the 15-0 Russian fighter managed to reach the welterweight playoffs in both 2022 and 2023, but failed to qualify in either. I hope that you will be able to feel the charm of “The Prince” again for the third time.
In the co-main event, Brendan Loughnane returned to the win column with a first-round finish over Pedro Carvalho, but his performance was less emphatic than previous performances.
Loughnane fired, immediately hurting Carvalho. Carvalho fought his way through, but immediately fell to his knees with his right hand, where he tried to grab his leg to protect himself. However, Loughnane did not allow that and continued to punch Carvalho while keeping his distance. And despite the fact that Carvalho was still clearly defending himself, referee Kevin McDonald saw enough to stop the fight just 86 seconds into the first round.
In the featured welterweight bout of the night, Shamil Musayev made his presence known by brutally knocking out Logan Storey in the second round.
Musaev never let Storey enter the match, even inflicting him with a severe injury at the end of the opening round before Storey was saved by the bell. However, it was only a short-lived respite. Musaev picked up where he left off in the second round, hurting Storey again before completely knocking out the lights with more punches as Storey tried to defend.
In another welterweight season match, Gabriel Braga scored a thrilling buzzer-beater knockout to end Justin Gonzalez in the first round.
After a ferocious five-minute battle, Bulaga landed a devastating left hook to the jaw, knocking Gonazares down in the final seconds of the round, earning him his sixth point of the season.
Also on the main card, Goity Yamauchi defeated Neiman Gracie by unanimous decision.
The two fought in Bellator in 2022, with Yamauchi winning by knockout. This time, he wasn’t able to finish Gracie, but he limited the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt’s grappling ability and tagged his leg multiple times, earning him the decision nod and three points on the welterweight season.
In the first match on the main card, Kai Kamaka defeated Bubba Jenkins by unanimous decision to earn his first PFL win. The former Bellator standout was able to disrupt Jenkins’ wrestling and outwork him on the feet, earning him three points on the featherweight season.
See full results for PFL 3 here.
