The beginning of the next season of the Professional Fighters League promised to be extremely interesting, because as part of the first show, five fights took place in the most prestigious - heavyweight division. And the list of contenders for the title and the million-dollar prize consisted almost half of Russians. Four domestic fighters were preparing to perform in San Antonio, and former Bellator title contender Valentin Moldavsky was immediately entrusted with leading the tournament.
The first of the Russians to enter the cage was another representative of the Fedor Team, also accompanied by the legendary Last Emperor. And Fedor Emelianenko’s advice came in handy during the first round. Oleg Popov actively started the fight with Steve Mowry, but closer to the middle of the segment he threw the American behind his back. But he didn’t allow the noose around his neck to be tightened, and spent the last seconds on top of him.
After the break, Popov continued to follow his line and try to put Mowry on the canvas, although he looked more than good in the standing position. And he did it again in the second minute - albeit at the cost of a missed knee to the head. However, the game was worth the candle. Steve slept through the jerk and launched Oleg first into the side control position, and then into the “crucifix”. And the American was no longer able to get out of this difficult situation. On the floor, he missed a huge number of shots to the head and forced the referee to intervene. And the Russian earned five points.
Unlike his teammate, Sergei Bilostenny spent all three planned rounds in the cage. And this is not surprising, because his opponent was very serious, even if he left on short notice. During his career, Blagoy Ivanov fought eight times in the UFC and won three of them, but lost to many people. Among them were such stars as former champion Junior dos Santos, league record holder for the number of knockouts Derrick Lewis, as well as former M-1 Global title holder Marcin Tybura.
And it immediately became clear that Bilostenny would not have an easy battle. Ivanov was not shy about making exchanges in the center of the cage and was often ahead of his younger and larger opponent, and at times he even gave out brilliant segments, “failing” his opponent several times in a row. And although the Russian surpassed the Bulgarian in the number of accurate hits (45:33), he certainly did not have a big advantage.
Nevertheless, Emelianenko did not doubt the strength of his ward and even during the break he told him: “He is yours.” And already in the second round, Bilostenny increased the pace and began to hit the body more and more often, forcing Ivanov to resort to the clinch. And he achieved his goal. Sergei got a little fed up and slowed down noticeably. And in the end he missed several heavy blows and even lost his mouth guard.
The problems with her did not end in the final segment. The referee once again returned the mouthguard to Bilostenniy, fortunately the reason for this was not a hard hook to the jaw. The Russian continued to lead in the number of hits, but the 37-year-old Bulgarian did not give up and stubbornly moved forward, despite the onset of fatigue. However, time after time he ran into a trouble-free jab from Sergei, who finally found his range. As a result, a large hematoma formed under his right eye, seriously interfering with his vision.
As a result, Bilostenny noticeably surpassed Ivanov in the number of strikes (129:95). And even though he failed to inflict the first knockout defeat on the Bulgarian in his career, he still won over the judges to his side. All three gave preference to the Russian, albeit with a minimal score of 29:28. True, the fans were clearly not happy with this verdict, greeting it with a roar.
Looking ahead, Bilostenny became the only representative of the heavy division who failed to finish his fight ahead of schedule. And with three points they are only in fifth place in the table. In addition to Popov, he was beaten by former ACA fighter Daniel James, who created a sensation in a duel with Marcelo Golm. The American approached her as an underdog, but a second before the end of the first round he beat the Brazilian on the ground and scored as many as six points. But he lost one due to a failed weigh-in.
Denis Goltsov also did not bring the matter to a decision by the judges. True, he had to spend much more time in the cage, and the beginning of the battle turned out to be extremely difficult. Linton Vassell immediately demonstrated his phenomenal wrestling skills and quickly knocked his opponent to the canvas, and subsequently twice tried to get into full mount. But the Russian came out of a difficult situation with honor and did not allow the 40-year-old Briton to consolidate his dominant position. True, he was unable to seize the initiative and found himself in the role of catching up.
Goltsov realized this and rushed forward from the very first seconds. And under such pressure, Vassell could not stand it - he missed a takedown and spent most of the round defending himself from incessant attacks. Denis was literally glued to Linton and did not let him go until the gong, driving one blow into the head after another. And even though he failed to finish the Briton, he surpassed the mark of 100 hits and could well have taken this five-minute period with a score of 10:8.
However, later all this became unimportant. Finally exhausted, Vassell was again transferred to the floor, and there he only resignedly endured the beating. The referee waited for a long time and gave the Briton more than one chance to get out, but in the fourth minute he finally gave up. Kerry Hatley stopped the fight, and Denis recovered from his defeat from Renan Ferreira and scored four points. And the statistics of strikes, which he accumulated as much as 7.5 times more (176:23), spoke extremely eloquently about his dominance.
After this, it was the turn of the main duel of the evening, which had every right to be considered principled. After all, the students of two great fighters, who almost 20 years ago staged one of the brightest battles in the history of mixed martial arts, had to fight each other. On August 28, 2005, Fedor Emelianenko, in a fierce confrontation, defeated Mirko Filippovich and defended the title of PRIDE champion. And now he was in the corner of Valentin Moldavsky, who made his PFL debut in a fight with Ante Delia, a striking knockout artist and triumphant of the 2022 season.
And Moldavsky’s performance became a real revelation. If earlier he relied on wrestling skills and preferred to gain the upper hand due to control on the ground, this time he chose to cut himself to death. And already in the third minute he confirmed the words of Emelianenko, who announced his solid progress in the stand. Valentin was literally unstoppable and flew into Delia like a whirlwind, not allowing him to provide worthy resistance. With a powerful straight right, the Russian threw the Croatian to the net and unleashed a flurry of punches on him, winning his first early victory since July 2018. Thanks to this, he scored six points and topped the Heavyweight Grand Prix table.