Fight Facts: PFL 4: 2021 Regular Season

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL FIGHTS: 623
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 63

The Professional Fighters League commenced the second half of its 2021 regular season with an event capped off by a non-tourney tilt. Lightweights and featherweights were largely on display as competitors vied for playoff spots, although a few matches to seal the divisions will take place in a few weeks. PFL 4: 2021 Regular Season featured a boxing crossover comeback for the ages, one of the few perfect fighters on the roster hanging on by a thread and an increasingly rare kimura.

Welcome to MMA: Putting Brittney Elkin away in the third round in a comeback effort, Claressa Shields made good in her MMA debut by earning the eighth knockout among female fighters in company history.

Light Weight, Heavy Power: Six of the eight knockouts among women have now come at the lightweight division; three of those courtesy of Kayla Harrison.

Leeroy Jenkins: Snagging a decision over Bobby Moffett, Bubba Jenkins earned his fifth consecutive win and qualified for the playoffs in the process. In victory, Jenkins set a new personal record for most wins in a row.

The One That Got Away: A majority decision for Brendan Loughnane allowed him to stay perfect as a PFL fighter, going 4-0 with the league after beating Tyler Diamond. Loughnane is now one of four fighters on the active roster that have not lost, joining Magomed Magomedkerimov (9-0), Harrison (8-0) and Ali Isaev (5-0).

He’ll Make the Playoffs Somehow: After three hard-fought rounds, Natan Schulte won a close decision over Alex Martinez. In doing so, Schulte scored his 10th win inside the World Series of Fighting-PFL cage, becoming the fifth fighter in company history to achieve that feat.

Scrappy Schulte: The appearance for Schulte is his 13th with the promotion, keeping him with the second-most bouts in organizational history.

Taking the Arm as a Souvenir: At the last second of Round 2, Sheymon Moraes hit a kimura on Jesse Stirn to earn five points and a potential playoff berth. Moraes notched just the fourth kimura in promotional history, and the first in just over two years.

No Time to Lose: The stoppage coming at the 4:59 mark, it is the second stoppage at this time in any WSOF-PFL round. The first was Ali Isaev’s semifinal-winning knockout of Denis Goltsov in 2019 at 4:59 of the final frame.

Paws Made for Punching: In 27 seconds, Loik Radzhabov put Akhmed Aliev away with a swarm of punches. “Jaguar Paw” recorded the eighth-quickest finish in WSOF-PFL history.

Lights Out Loik: That 27-second knockout for Radzhabov is also good for the second-fastest among lightweights with the company. Nick Browne’s 25-second drubbing of Sidney Outlaw at WSOF 13 in 2014 holds the top spot in the division.

Well, That’s New: In the card opener, Chris Wade scored the first knockout victory of his career by clocking Arman Ospanov with a head kick and follow-up punches. All of his other stoppage victories have come by either rear-naked choke or guillotine choke.

Tourney Regular: The fight for Wade marked his 11th with the company, and all 11 have taken place in the PFL cage. “The Long Island Killer” is now tied for the third-most bouts in promotional history with Jared Rosholt, Marlon Moraes, Ray Cooper III and Vinny Magalhaes.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into PFL 4: 2021 Regular Season, Martinez had never been defeated (nine fights), Moraes had never landed a submission (16 fights) and Ospanov had never competed in the U.S. (14 fights).