Magomed Umalatov remains unbeaten.
PFL 3 took place Friday night at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, featuring the start of the welterweight and featherweight seasons. Umalatov took on Andrey Koreshkov in the main event, and the undefeated American Top Team product kept his perfect record, dominating the former Bellator welterweight champion to take a unanimous decision win. Umalatov’s grappling and power punches proved to be too much for Koreshkov, who was hurt several times in the fight but managed to survive to the final buzzer.
This is Umalatov’s third season in the PFL, as the 15-0 Russian fighter managed to make it to the welterweight playoffs in both 2022 and 2023 but was unable to compete both times. Hopefully, the third time is the charm for “Prince.”
In the co-main event, Brendan Loughnane got back in the win column with a first-round finish of Pedro Carvalho, though it was a bit less emphatic than some of his previous performances.
Loughnane came out firing, hurting Carvalho almost immediately. Carvalho battled through, but a right hand dropped him shortly afterward and forced him to his knees, where he looked to defend himself and grab a leg. Loughnane did not allow that though, repeatedly punching Carvalho while keeping his distance. And despite the fact that Carvalho still clearly had his wits about him and was defending himself, referee Kevin MacDonald saw enough, stopping the bout just 86 seconds into the first round.
In the featured welterweight bout of the evening, Shamil Musaev made a statement by brutally knocking out Logan Storley in the second round.
Musaev never really let Storley get going in the contest, and even badly hurt him at the end of the opening round before Storley was saved by the bell. That proved only to be a brief respite though, as Musaev picked up right where he left off in the second round, hurting Storley again before turning his lights out completely with more punches as Storley tried to defend himself.
In another welterweight season bout, Gabriel Braga delivered a thrilling buzzer-beater knockout to finish Justin Gonzales in the first round.
After a hard five minutes, Braga found the chin with a devastating left hook that put Gonazales down at the last second of the round and earned him six points for the season.
Also on the main card, Goiti Yamauchi defeated Neiman Gracie via unanimous decision.
The two previously met in Bellator in 2022, where Yamauchi won via knockout. This time, he was unable to finish Gracie, but did limit the BJJ black belt’s grappling ability and repeatedly tagged him on the feet, earning the decision nod and three points for the welterweight season.
In the first fight of the main card, Kai Kamaka picked up his first PFL win, taking a unanimous decision over Bubba Jenkins. The former Bellator standout was able to stymie Jenkins’s wrestling and outwork him on the feet to earn three points in the featherweight season.
Check out the full PFL 3 results here.
