PFL Battle of the Giants takeaways: Ngannou’s two-sport plans, the need for a Cyborg-Pacheco rivalry

PFL Tremendous Fights: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was headlined by three title fights throughout PFL and Bellator. Johnny Eblen efficiently defended his title in a rematch towards Fabian Edwards, whereas Francis Ngannou and Cris Cyborg, who had been making their PFL debuts, received Tremendous Fights belts towards Renan Ferreira and Larissa Pacheco, respectively. Now that the mud has settled, what’s subsequent for the three winners? Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim provide their last ideas on the occasion.

What’s subsequent for ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’?

A break — though I have to say, I do not understand how lengthy of a break Ngannou will take.

It was unbelievable that he wished to take this combat. Kobe, his son, died in late April, and we’re solely in mid-October. He hasn’t even had six months to course of his loss. He took the combat to honor his 15-month-old son and, I imagine, grieve. Ngannou is the sort of human being who grieves in movement moderately than sitting nonetheless. This combat gave him one thing to speculate his ache.

Now that it is over, what’s modified? On the postfight information convention Saturday, he primarily stated he’ll grieve for the remainder of his life. I anticipate that after the mud settles from this combat, it will not be lengthy earlier than Ngannou begins to crave one other problem as a result of he is not the sort of particular person to sit down. The excellent news is that I imagine he may have choices. One way or the other, he continues to search out unbelievable new methods to encourage yearly. As he stated in his postfight interview, he has discovered one thing of a house in Saudi Arabia, which has hosted his previous three fights (two boxing, one MMA) and promotional powers that be will certainly need him again — and pay for it.

My intestine is that his subsequent combat is in a boxing ring, however it can depend upon how sure dominoes fall. The PFL has already said it needs its Tremendous Fights champions to defend belts. I imagine we’ll see Ngannou in competitors once more within the first half of subsequent yr, and I imagine, a technique or one other, he’ll get two appearances. — Okamoto

A Cyborg-Pacheco rivalry is greatest case state of affairs for PFL, girls’s MMA

Cris Cyborg received a aggressive unanimous determination over Larissa Pacheco to change into the PFL Tremendous Battle girls’s featherweight champion. Selecting up one other world title at age 39, Cyborg nonetheless has a declare to being one of many biggest girls’s combined martial artists within the sport’s historical past. Nevertheless, because of the aggressive nature of the combat, the place Cyborg’s face was left a bloody mess of cuts and bruises, this may increasingly have been the absolute best final result for PFL.

With Ngannou and Eblen successful dominantly and with out a worthy challenger, the PFL may benefit from a rivalry that might convey eyeballs again to the product. A rematch between Cyborg and Pacheco treatments that as one thing followers can sink their enamel into.

It is solely pure, given how the combat performed out.

Though the scores had been 49-46, the combat steered that Pacheco, 30, might ultimately be Cyborg’s successor. Cyborg was compelled to deploy a distinct recreation plan, combating tactfully moderately than blowing the competitors away along with her energy. The multi-promotion world champion fought intelligently, mixing takedowns along with her placing, a stark departure from her calling card of overpowering the opposition. However Pacheco — the one girl to defeat present UFC title contender Kayla Harrison — is youthful, quicker and arguably stronger than her counterpart.

It was a battle of youth vs. expertise, with Cyborg successful on factors, however Pacheco doing extra harm. It was the primary time Cyborg was compelled to make use of her intelligence moderately than energy to win a combat. A proven fact that was crystalized within the third spherical when Pacheco beckoned to satisfy her within the heart of the cage for a firefight. A youthful Cyborg would have gleefully answered the decision. Nevertheless, this wiser model of Cyborg relented and performed it good moderately than enable her ego to tug her right into a fistfight that would have ended badly for her.

Though Pacheco misplaced, she has one thing to construct upon for a return bout. She now is aware of what she is coping with, and the rematch would undoubtedly carry some intrigue because of the changes they need to make.

Rivalries are at all times greatest for enterprise within the combat recreation, and the PFL has one which helps bolster its product and girls’s MMA. With two extra fights on Cyborg’s contract, a rematch appears seemingly — and essential. — Hale

Little left to do for Johnny Eblen in new PFL

Eblen was in a no-win state of affairs, getting into the cage to defend his Bellator middleweight championship towards a challenger he had knocked out barely a yr in the past. How was he purported to surpass that efficiency? He did not surpass it, as issues turned out, however Eblen, 32, managed to get his hand raised towards Fabian Edwards, 31, for a second time. This one went the gap and was aggressive.

So, ought to they simply run it again once more?

I am being facetious. There isn’t any have to go the trilogy route when one fighter is 2-0 versus the opposite. However I elevate that state of affairs to guide me to this query: What is left for Eblen?

He is among the greatest 185-pounders on this planet — No. 5 within the ESPN divisional rankings — however he is a champion with out a clearcut challenger. He is twice defeated Bellator’s No. 2 middleweight, Edwards. The following in line could be Anatoly Tokov, and Eblen has crushed him, too. A greater rematch would have been towards Gegard Mousasi, however Bellator’s father or mother firm, the PFL, launched him and Mousasi’s combat is with the corporate, as he is suing.

A transfer over to the PFL is not within the playing cards for Eblen, since there is not any 185-pound division. So what’s going to the matchmakers do subsequent with Eblen? Or is it time to think about a transfer to the UFC? — Wagenheim