• The Professional Fighters League 2019 World Championship will be held at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve and Daniel Pineda still hopes to be facing defending featherweight champion Lance Palmer.

    Pineda, as has been reported, will have to go before the Nevada Athletic Commission on December 18 to appeal an irregular test result from his Playoff fights in Las Vegas in October.  

    “The PFL believes all athletes deserve due process and will, within reason, provide the fighters who earned their way into the Finals every opportunity to compete on New Year’s Eve,” said PFL CEO Peter Murray. “The League, as always, will abide by the final ruling of the commission.

    Per league rules, the PFL has designated alternates for the Championship event — the highest seeded semifinal participant in each division. The alternates will be on hand in New York and will make weight in preparation for any issues that may arise.  

    Should Pineda be unable to compete, Alex Gilpin will slot into his spot against Palmer for $1M and the 2019 PFL title.  

    Welterweight alternate Glaico Franca will also have a hearing before the NAC on December 18 and should he be unavailable, Chris Curtis will step in for him at 170 pounds.  

    The 2019 PFL World Championship will broadcast live on ESPN2 at 7:00pm ET. The full fight card can be found here.
    2019 PFL Championship Alternates:  

    Featherweight — Alex Gilpin
    Women’s Lightweight — Sarah Kaufman
    Lightweight — Chris Wade
    Welterweight — Glaico Franca (Second alternate is Chris Curtis)  
    Light Heavyweight — Bozigit Ataev
    Heavyweight — Denis Goltsov

    About Professional Fighters League  The Professional Fighters League (PFL) presents MMA for the first time in the sportseason format where individual fighters control their own destiny, competing in a regular season, playoffs, and championship. ?PFL’s differentiated format and exciting fights sparked breakout growth for the league. ??PFL events are Thursday nights primetime live on ESPN2 and ESPN+.    

    The PFL 2019 Season features elite MMA athletes across six weight classes, including the first-ever 155-pound women’s division, with each fighter having two fights during the PFL Regular Season in May, June, July, and August.  The top eight fighters in each weight class advance to the single-elimination PFL Playoffs in October, where fighters must fight twice and win twice in the same night to advance to the finals.  PFL Championship is New Year’s Eve with the winners of each title bout being crowned PFL World Champion of their respective weight class and earning $1 million.  Viewers will be delivered next-gen stats never before seen in MMA through the PFL’s proprietary SmartCage™ platform and Cagenomics™ technology.    

    PFL is backed by an investor group of sports, media, entertainment, and business titans.  Watch PFL live Thursday nights in the U.S. on ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes.  PFL is also available in 130 countries around the world with leading local broadcasters.      For more info visit www.PFLmma.com and follow PFL on Instagram (@PFLmma), Twitter (@ProFightLeague), and Facebook (/ProFightLeague).