Sherdog’s live
PFL Brussels coverage will begin Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Round 1
The UFC is off this weekend? All boxing has to offer is a strange
crossover fight at the Pyramids of Giza (seriously)? Say no more,
because PFL is in the house. The Belgian house, that is, of the ING
Arena in Brussels, home of the legendary Jean-Claude Van Damme. To
complete the second trivia question from this week, the correct
answer is clearly “All of the Above: Bloodsport” as to the greatest
film he has ever made. Plenty of Belgian fighters will litter the
lineup tonight—in fact, the first bout of the evening pits a local
athlete against a marauding “Beast” from England as “Belgian
Warrior” Serbiev (9-5, 0-0 PFL) battles Reece (9-3, 1 NC; 0-0 PFL).
The two will collide at 170 pounds, with referee Stephane Demonty
handling the rest. The fighters opt not to touch gloves, and it’s
time for some action.
Serbiev reaches out with front kicks as he establishes himself
early in the center of the cage, probing them out to find his
distance. Reece offers back a low kick and is backed to the wall
with an overhand right. They swing right hands at the same time,
and it is Serbiev who lands the cleaner of the two. Serbiev catches
Reece with another right hand, prompting Reece to rush at his man
and clinch up. While he closes in, his hand gets caught in
Serbiev’s shorts, resulting in a funny moment as they try to
disengage without exiting from the clinch. The two remain clinched
up sharing short knees, and Serbiev turns him about.
They continue to linger in the clinch until Serbiev decides to let
loose, driving a knee into the guard and swinging his fists. Reece
shells up to defend the worst of it, and he charges forward through
a head kick to tackle Reece to the mat. While coming at him, Reece
gets blasted, and his nose is badly damaged as blood flows heavily
from it. Serbiev frames off from his back and uses elbows while
keeping an open guard, and he fights back to his feet. His success
is short-lived, as Reece mat returns him in short order and holds
him down from behind with Serbiev on a knee. Serbiev defends on his
back by attempting to snare Reece in a guillotine choke, but time
elapses before anything comes of it.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Round 2
Rushing out of his corner, Serbiev slams offense into Reece while
Reece responds with a level change. With Reece on his knees,
Serbiev illegally bashes him in the face with a knee. Reece somehow
tanks it and gathers his thoughts, but he is still compromised and
bleeding so irritatingly that he keeps wiping his nose. Serbiev can
practically land at will from range when he breaks off, potshotting
and landing with low kicks, high kicks, jabs, uppercuts and
anything else he feels like pitching. Reece tries for a level
change, and he gets Serbiev to a knee and is elbowed in the back of
the head. Demonty calls him on it, but the damage is already done
and Serbiev got away with another as well. Reece works Serbiev over
from behind with short, frustrating left hands, nullifying his
opponent but not doing much damage on his own end.
Reece slowly grinds out Serbiev with pitter-patter left hands, and
Serbiev is annoyed but unable to do anything about it. Reece only
puts a bit of oomph behind his blows but they are adding up, and he
keeps chaining them together for the latter part of the round. He
remains active doing this as Serbiev starts to fade, and the
Belgian can barely get back to his corner when the round ends.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Serbiev
Round 3
Serbiev complains to his corner between rounds that he might have
sustained an arm injury, and he is also fatigued and struggled to
walk to his team and then back to the center of the cage. Reece
only needs a few seconds when the final round commences to shoot
from one side of the enclosure to the other so he can ground
Serbiev. While he cannot put Serbiev flat on the mat, he gets him
back to the same position where he spent about three minutes of the
previous frame, leaning on Serbiev who is on one knee against the
cage wall. The left hands from Reece continue to fluster the local
athlete, who is chattering to his corner or the referee or anyone
listening. Reece continues this strategy even as Demonty calls for
more activity.
Reece redoubles his effort to fully ground his opponent, and
Serbiev posts off his right arm but is ginger on it. Reece grinds
him out until Demonty calls time when a punch from the Brit bangs
into Serbiev’s cup. Serbiev takes plenty of time to get his wind
back even though the foul did not appear to be overly damaging,
only the fighter knows how compromised he is from the blow. They
restart on the feet, and after a couple Serbiev low kicks and an
uppercut, Reece crashes the pocket to muscle him to a knee. Serbiev
defends with elbows and short punches when backed to the wire, with
Reece hanging on like a cheap suit. With 25 seconds left, Serbiev
is able to explode to his feet, drive a knee to the chest and back
off Reece with a left hand. Reece walks him down for the remainder
of the match, blocking a high kick as the horn sounds.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Reece (29-28 Serbiev)
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Reece (29-28 Serbiev)
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Reece (29-28 Serbiev)
The Official Result
Ashley Reece def. Rustam Serbiev via Unanimous Decision (29-28,
29-28, 29-28)
Round 1
Wasting no time at all, we move right to the next matchup of a
featherweight collision between a Frenchman and a representative of
Brazil. Meskini (10-3, 2-1 PFL), out of Old School Academy in
Villacresnes, comes to blows with “Leao” Lopes (12-4-1, 0-1 PFL) of
Nova Uniao fame. The two will throw down with referee Stephane
Demonty back in again taking charge of the cage around them. They
elect not to touch ‘em up to get going.
The two are jittery and respect the other’s power right out of the
gate, motioning to one another and trying to force the other to
make a mistake. This leads to a stalemate for the first 43 seconds
until Lopes lets loose a hefty low kick. They go back to
shadowboxing again other than a couple low kicks from the fighters.
Lopes slowly works his way in, chambering and firing a big right
hand that he uses to disrupt Meskini’s balance and bowl him over to
the floor. Meskini bounces back up, and Lopes hurls him back to his
seat again and holds him down with his elbow on the Frenchman’s
face. Meskini sits up, and Lopes leaps after a kneebar and cranks
the limb straight as hard as he can.
Meskini turns to his side to get out of danger, and he grabs the
fence and pulls himself on it to get some leverage. Lopes
transitions to a back take in a hurry, and he starts fishing for a
rear-naked choke. He goes palm-to-palm with a modified version of
the RNC to try to muscle Meskini out, but he abandons it to try to
set up an arm-triangle choke as he holds down Meskini in an
awkward, dangerous position. Lopes climbs into full mount and
abandons the choke, thumping Meskini in the face with a few
shoulders until Meskini bucks him off. Meskini tries to turn the
tables and pursue his own takedown, and Lopes sprawls well and
backs off to put his back to the fence. Meskini leans on his foe
while jamming him up with short left hands, and the bell rings
before he can do anything with it.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Lopes
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Lopes
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Lopes
Round 2
Lopes introduces himself with a low kick, and Meskini offers back a
pair of body kicks. On the second, Lopes times it with a beautiful
right hand and blasts Meskini in the face with a left hand that
sends him crashing to the mat. Meskini somehow blinks it out and
bursts back to his feet, where Lopes bullies him to the wall.
Meskini turns him about and tries for his own level change, but
this stalls out and draws a warning from Demonty. Meskini scoops
the Brazilian up in the air and deposits him to the mat, where he
lands with one leg intertwined betwixt Lopes’ to keep him trapped
on his seat.
Lopes stands up, but not without taking a knee to the solar plexus.
Meskini goes after a mat return, and it is Lopes who clasps his
hands around Meskini’s shoulders in an effort to reverse him. Lopes
cannot hold this sheer power position for long, and he gives up on
it and settles to close his guard. Meskini initiates some
ground-and-pound from above, but few strikes get through thanks to
Lopes wrapping up the Frenchman’s arms. Meskini postures up to
drill Lopes with a few flush elbows, and he ends the round with his
fists.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Meskini
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Meskini
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Meskini
Round 3
Lopes sprints out of his corner to attack, and he flashes a smile
when Meskini tries to counter him like Bald Bull of “Punch Out”
fame and peels back. Lopes drops to a hand and twirls with a
Capoeira-inspired kick, but he is feet out of range as Meskini just
watches it fly by. When Lopes resettles, Meskini kicks him in the
ribs. Lopes ducks and darts his way in, but all he gets for it is a
calf kick. Meskini smacks the front leg again when Lopes is just
fishing, and he connects with a few more before rushing forward to
pursue a takedown. Lopes snatches him and they twirl around in the
body lock position trying to leverage the other to the floor.
Meskini drops to his knees to take the fight down, and going after
a double-leg takedown while Lopes spreads his legs out to sprawl
with his right shoulder pinned to the fencing. Lopes uses
underhooks to stave off the effort, elbowing Meskini in the ribs
with gusto. Meskini lifts Lopes up and drops him to his knees, and
appears to knee Lopes in the face with an illegal knee. Demonty,
like the previous fight, does not call it even though he is looking
right at them. Rules are only rules if they are enforced. If you
ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’. Lopes shrugs it off and leaps
back to his feet to turn Meskini to the fence, and they jockey for
position until Meskini disengages with 30 seconds to go. Both
featherweights loose big punches, and Meskini dances out of the way
when he sees the telegraphed power shots coming at him. Meskini
drills Lopes in the jaw, Lopes spits and throws back with fire.
They swing it out to the bell.
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round: 10-9 Meskini (29-28 Meskini)
Mike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Meskini (29-28 Meskini)
Tudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 Meskini (29-28 Meskini)
The Official Result
Adam Meskini def. Keweny Lopes via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29,
29-28)
Round 1
So amped up to punch one another in the face, the PFL has had to
keep them restrained for multiple parts of the week because Abaev
(5-1, 0-1 PFL) and Poclit (10-2, 0-1 PFL) keep throwing hands any
time they meet up. The weigh-ins were so dramatic, it was actually
a question as to whether this fight could stay together given that
there was an all-out brawl on the stage yesterday. Luckily, they
finally get their chance to duke it out in a paid, sanctioned
manner. Let’s do this thing. Referee Axel Vankimmenade clocks in
the welterweights, who have absolutely no interest in touching
gloves.
Abaev rushes out of his corner to swing a huge calf kick at his
opponent, and one strike in, Poclit is considering a stance switch.
Abaev hurls another, and Poclit hurries out of the way to not get
hit by the second one. Abaev chases Poclit down and kicks him
again, and Poclit is circling on the outer edge of the cage unable
to do anything on his own side. Abaev digs a left to the body and
slips away from a counter, and he hammers the other leg with a
kick. Poclit has yet to throw anything of merit or anywhere close
in the first 90 seconds. Abaev zings an overhand right to knock
Poclit to the floor, and he just misses what would have been an
extremely illegal soccer kick to Poclit’s face. Poclit explodes
back to his feet and takes another right hand for his effort. Abaev
loads up on his way in, cocking his right back to unload.
Poclit tries to jab, but he stumbles as he is moving. Abaev jabs
him back, but it is his crushing calf kick that Poclit has to lift
all the way across his body to take the sting out of it. Brimming
with confidence, the Belgian stalks Poclit down and jacks him in
the jaw with a ferocious left hand that puts Poclit down for the
count.
When Abaev lands, Poclit skims him with a left as everyone goes
flying, including Abaev himself. He has to bounce back in with
Poclit turned over and slumped to his stomach, but Poclit is done
so he only has to batter him with a few finalizing punches until
Vankimmenade steps in to call it a day. Poclit is down
for a while, but he manages to recover as he is told what happened.
When he gets back to his feet, the two completely squash their beef
and shake hands. Abaev goes on to apologize to commentator Dan
Hardy for kicking him, while applauding Hardy for his takedown
defense during the brawl the day before.
The Official Result
Khamzat Abaev def. Luca Poclit R1 2:56 via KO (Punches)
Round 1
Ibragimov (7-1, 1-1 PFL) was expecting this whole time to face
Ivory Coast-based athlete Youssouf Binate, but that was not meant
to be when Binate failed to notify the powers that be that he would
reportedly be in court on fight week and not available for the
particulars. Therefore, Britain’s Campbell (5-4, 0-0 PFL)—not the
same as “Sugar” Shane Campbell of UFC fame—hopped on a train to
head to Brussels on Friday to join up in the lineup. While
initially booked as a bantamweight match, Campbell needed it bumped
to featherweight to proceed on short notice. Handling the rest of
the details will be referee Axel Vankimmenade. They choose not to
touch gloves.
Ibragimov strikes first after about 20 seconds with a calf kick.
Campbell blitzes him with a shovel uppercut and a right hand to
follow. Campbell scores a body kick with his left leg and a calf
kick with his right. He lands another kick to the calf, and drills
the Belgian with an overhand right. Campbell chases after
Ibragimov, who is still searching for his range, and they trade
hard low kicks. Campbell jabs in behind a step-in knee, and
Ibragimov snatches it in mid-air to take him to the floor.
Ibragimov drives home some ground strikes when establishing himself
on top, but the frantic bucking of Campbell allows the Brit to
surge back to his feet.
Ibragimov times a circling Campbell with a wheel kick, and he keeps
flowing and nails “Super Shane” with a left hand at the same time
that Campbell is diving after a leg. Ibragimov considers bombing on
him from above, but he
engages his grappling and gets into mount before swirling around at
the right moment to take the late replacement’s back. The
rear-naked choke setup is textbook, and the finish is academic
given that the limb is under the neck and they are both fairly dry
and still competing at full power. Campbell promptly
surrenders, knowing that there is nothing left for him to do today.
The victor is extremely grateful that he was able to compete
tonight in front of a home crowd, and performs a mighty back flip
off the top of the cage a la Justin Gaethje.
The Official Result
Movsar Ibragimov def. Shane Campbell R1 3:28 via Submission
(Rear-Naked Choke)
Round 1
This one comes as a bit of a surprise pairing. Kickboxing champion
Abena (0-0, 0-0 PFL) wants to try his luck in the MMA cage, and his
professional debut comes against a fellow kickfighter in Schilling
(4-6, 0-0 PFL). The latter has been away from MMA for a while, and
it remains to be seen if he engages what might be a grappling
advantage given his training at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. The two
205ers bump fists before throwing down, with referee Mike Beltran
all that stands between them and total annihilation.
Schilling runs right at Abena and lets him have it with a flurry of
fists. Abena takes a few on the chin and reels, and he has to back
off and reset. Schilling stalks after him and connects with a few
punches and kicks before they clash together, and shockingly, Abena
tackles him to the floor. When Abena lands on top, he headbutts
Schilling blatantly. Beltran is enraged and pushes Abena off of
him, and Schilling screams at him and says the fight is over
because of the foul. Beltran takes one fight from Abena, and
Schilling walks off shouting that the fight is done. Beltran tells
him that if he stops the fight, Schilling will lose. Schilling
takes times to think about it, and elects to put himself on his
back to reset. Schilling is still incensed, mad about the position
where Beltran replaced them, and he is not interested in fighting
anymore. Schilling kicks off and stands back up before the fight is
restarted. With no choice left, Beltran waves the fight off—this
will likely end up as a TKO (Retirement) victory for Abena due to
this bizarro situation—and Schilling goes over to confront Abena
and is about to throw hands with him even as the fight is over.
Security and officials get between them, and Schilling is held back
but is cursing and raging the whole time. As he is stopped from
throwing any more hands today, Schilling bails and leaves the cage.
Abena is awarded the win after all, and we all will try to put this
embarrassing ordeal behind us.
The Official Result
Donegi Abena def. Joe Schilling R1 0:36 via TKO (Retirement)
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
The Official Result
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
The Official Result
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
The Official Result
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
The Official Result
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
The Official Result
Round 1
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 2
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round:
Round 3
Sherdog Scores
Jay Pettry scores the round:
Mike Pendleton scores the round:
Tudor Leonte scores the round: