Linton Vassell managed to dig a little deeper.
The Killcliff Fight Club star fought tooth and nail and used his willpower to pull off a split decision victory against PFL4 summiteer Valentin Moldavsky on Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., in his first main event in the Professional Fighters League. All three cageside judges – Eric Colon for Moldavsky and Sal D’Amato and Brian Miner (24-9, 1-1 PFL) for Vassell – had the bout on their scorecards at 29-28.
Moldavsky (13-4, 1-1 PFL) relied on takedowns, constant ground-and-pound and positional control but ultimately couldn’t establish an advantage in the trilogy bout between the rivals. Vassell landed the fight’s most crucial strike late in the second round, breaking out of a clinch and landing a perfectly timed knee on the break to finish off the Emelianenko Fedor protégé. Otherwise, neither man managed to gain an advantage in a sludgy back-and-forth battle.
The 41-year-old Vassell has won six of his last seven fights and leads 2-1 in head-to-head matches against the Russian.
All was not lost for Moldavsky. He earned the No. 3 heavyweight seed in the PFL playoffs and will face longtime teammate and No. 2 seed Oleg Popov in the semifinals in August. Popov (18-1, 2-0 PFL) defeated Davion Franklin (7-2, 1-0 PFL) by unanimous decision in three rounds in their regular-season heavyweight pairing, earning three points with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-25 from the cageside judges.
Meanwhile, American Top Team’s Dakota Dycheba maintained her perfect professional record with a dominant win over Chelsea Hackett with punches in the first round of the women’s flyweight co-main event. Hackett (4-3-1, 1-2 PFL) suffered her third defeat in four fights 3 minutes, 22 seconds into the first round.
Ditcheva (12-0, 7-0 PFL) battered the Australian’s lower legs with kicks, put her down with a clean one-two in one of their first stand-up exchanges and held serve in the clinch. Hackett tried to go for a takedown but got nowhere. Despite being under a lot of pressure, Ditcheva backed the Dana White Contender Series alumnus to the fence, attacking her with left hooks to the body and ripping her apart with punches to the head until the job was done.
With the stoppage, the 25-year-old Ditcheva earned six points in the regular-season standings and locked up the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds. She will face No. 4 seed Jenna Bishop in the PFL playoff semifinals later this summer.
Further down the field, former Absolute Championship Ahmat champion Denis Goltzov knocked out The Ultimate Fighter Brazil Season 2 quarterfinalist Thiago Santos with punches in the first round of the heavyweight showcase. Santos (22-13, 0-2 PFL), a last-minute replacement for Sergey Birostnyy, succumbed to a strike 2 minutes, 22 seconds into the first round.
Goltsov (34-8 MMA, 12-3 UFC) caught the Brazilian with a check hook within the first minute, then lunged into top position, threatened an arm triangle, climbed into full mount and eventually got behind Santos. Santos briefly rose to his feet but was pulled back to the canvas. Goltsov unleashed ground-and-pound, leaving his prone opponent vulnerable and continuing his onslaught until the fight was stopped.
The win was Goltsov’s seventh in eight bouts, and the 34-year-old sambo fighter picked up another six points in the regular season standings. He secured the No. 1 seed with the stoppage and will face No. 4 seed Tim Johnson in the semifinals of the PFL Playoffs in August. Johnson (18-9, 1-0 PFL) earned six points in his promotional debut. He overcame a hard low blow to stop Danilo Marquez (15-6, 3-2 PFL) with punches 3:14 into the first round of their regular season heavyweight bout. Finally, reigning Bellator MMA champion Liz Carmouche defeated Kana Watanabe by armbar in the third round of the women’s flyweight feature. Watanabe (13-3-1, 1-1 PFL) was eliminated at 4:52 of the third round, suffering the first submission loss of her 17-fight career.
The bout was a fierce battle until the end. The two men clinched frequently and traded ground position for the first 10 minutes. Watanabe applied a deep arm-triangle choke late in the middle rounds, forcing his opponent to work with pressure and tenacity. Carmouche (22-7, 2-0 PFL) turned the tide with power punches in the third round, taking the Japanese judoka down with a right-left hook combination and throwing his head back with a lunging uppercut. Watanabe didn’t give in. He rose to top position midway through the third round and attempted another arm-triangle choke, but ended up exposing his limbs. Carmouche rolled into an armbar, then worked his hips to force the tapout and exited the cage with four points in the 125-pound standings.
The 40-year-old Carmouche is riding a nine-fight winning streak and leads 2-0 in her head-to-head series against Watanabe, having defeated the Fighters Flow representative with punches in their first bout in June 2021. She also earned the No. 3 seed at 125 pounds and will face No. 2 seed Tayla Santos in the PFL playoff semifinals later this summer. Santos (21-3, 2-0 PFL) earned three points in the highly anticipated women’s flyweight prelims by defeating the aforementioned Bishop (7-1, 1-1 PFL) via three-round split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
In other bouts, Tyrell Fortune (14-2, 1-0 PFL) earned three points by winning a three-round unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26) over Marcelo Gorm (10-6, 0-2 PFL) in a regular season heavyweight bout. Ilala Joan (12-9, 1-1 PFL) earned three points by collecting scores of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 from the cageside judges after defeating Shanna Young (9-8, 1-2 PFL) by three-round unanimous decision in a regular season women’s flyweight bout. Juliana Velazquez (13-3, 1-1 PFL) earned five points by knocking down Lisa Mauldin (6-5, 2-2 PFL) with punches 1:30 into the second round of their regular season women’s flyweight pairing. Also, Sumiko Inaba (7-1, 1-0 PFL) narrowly defeated Saray Orozco (8-6, 0-1 PFL) by 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 split decision in a three-round women’s flyweight bout.
