Two of the PFL’s best fighters will look to establish themselves as being worthy of a place in the top tier of mixed martial arts Saturday. So will the fight company itself.
Renan Ferreira won the 2023 PFL heavyweight championship last November, and on the same night, women’s featherweight Larissa Pacheco captured her second straight season title. Those accomplishments brought with them hefty paydays and a degree of recognition, but nothing like what will shine on whichever of the two fighters is victorious at PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (ESPN+ PPV at 4 p.m. ET, prelims on ESPN+ at 1:30 p.m.).
Ferreira faces former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who will be making his long-anticipated PFL debut after signing with the company in May 2023. He took a two-fight detour into boxing during which he knocked down and nearly defeated that sport’s top heavyweight at the time, Tyson Fury. The last time we saw Ngannou in an MMA cage, in January 2022, he was solidifying his standing as the baddest man on the planet. That status wouldn’t necessarily transfer to Ferreira with a victory in this weekend’s main event, but he would get a supercharged boost in that direction.
Likewise, Pacheco would elevate her profile in a big way by beating Cris Cyborg, a longtime A-lister of women’s MMA. Pacheco already has an elite entry on her resume, as she handed Kayla Harrison — the presumptive next challenger for the UFC women’s bantamweight championship — the only defeat of her career in the 2022 PFL lightweight final. Adding a win over Cyborg, the reigning Bellator champion and a former champ in the UFC, Strikeforce and Invicta, would be a potent one-two punch for Pacheco.
