2023 PFL Playoffs: Light Heavyweights and Featherweights Start Tournament
Both New and Familiar Contenders Look for Breakthrough
Top Seeds Silveira and Jenkins Favored Significantly
New champions will be crowned in the PFL’s light heavyweight and featherweight tournaments. The 2023 edition starts this Friday with Josh Silveira and Bubba Jenkins, the respective top seeds, being favored the widest in their matchups per the 2023 PFL Playoffs odds. Last year, Silveira lost in the semi-finals while Jenkins came up short in the finals. But the fighters who beat them are not in the tournament thus paving the way for their breakthrough.
PFL 7 2023 Season
Day/Time:
Location: Boeing Center at Tech Port, San Antonio
Broadcast: ESPN, ESPN+ (Prelims)
Jenkins and Wade Look To Finish on Top
Bubba Jenkins leads the PFL’s featherweight bracket as the number-one seed. And thus, he’s the -375 favorite over fourth-seed Jesus Pinedo (+290). However, the Peruvian underdog just upset Brendan Loughnane, the PFL champion last year. He knocked out the man who defeated Jenkins to win the 2022 tournament.
“It’s not going to be complicated for me at all to fight Bubba Jenkins,” Pinedo said in Spanish. “It’s not that I’m underestimating him. I know it’s going to be a tough fight, but I’m totally confident in the work that I’ve been doing for many years.”
Pinedo comes from the same gym as UFC contender Claudio Puelles and Bellator fighter Enrique Barzola. He could spring an upset here as Jenkins has been prone to falling short in big spots.
But the American has looked primed and earned the top spot with a first-round submission win in June. He also has a win over Chris Wade, who is the fifth seed in these 2023 PFL playoffs.
Wade, the former lightweight, is 1-1 against Jenkins in the PFL. He’s been to the semi-finals in all four of the tournaments he’s entered. This streak could end this year as Gabriel Alves Braga is slightly favored over him at -120. The ex-UFC fighter, Wade will be at an even (+100) betting price on the PFL odds. He’s flourished as one and is 4-1 in his last five PFL fights as a dog.
As for the Brazilian, he edged Pinedo and then made quick work of former PFL champion Marlon Moraes. He has never lost (11-0-0) in his young career.
Silveira is Either the Real Deal or…
He’s going to be the latest favorite to get a rude awakening. PFL has been a promotion ripe with upsets. Even highly-touted fighters like Rory Macdonald lost as huge favorites. In Josh Silveira’s case, he’s the -500 favorite and the largest of this Friday’s 2023 PFL Playoffs. But the 30-year-old already sounds overconfident.
“We are kind of somewhat similar fighters when it comes to wrestling. I just think I’m in better shape. I just think I’m in better shape, and I just think I just going to have a better IQ level. It’s going to be a hard time for him,” Silveira said of his opponent, Ty Flores the +350 underdog.
“I think Flores got a little bit of luck with a little bit of how the season turned out, and that’s why he’s got here to this point. It all ends now.”
Silveira talks of Flores getting lucky, but he clinched the first seed because his last opponent hurt his knee in the first round. He was a -600 favorite in that fight so he would have still won. But as for Flores, he ground his way to two decision victories.
Meanwhile, the other bracket has Impa Kasanganay favored at -250 over Marthin Hamlet at +195. Kasanganay is in his third weight class and has been unbeaten at 205 pounds. Not having to cut weight has been a boon for the 29-year-old who is near the top of the PFL Light Heavyweight rankings.
Hamlet has won three fights in a row with PFL. His last two losses came against Silveira and the 2021 champion, Antonio Carlos Junior.
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