PFL 2 is upon us. After a Thursday night event a week ago, the promotion settles into a Friday night show for each of the next two weeks. As was the case in PFL 1 and will be the case throughout the ongoing quarterfinal phase of the tournament, Friday’s show will be held on Stage 19 of Universal Orlando, the former home to Nickelodeon Studios.
Live coverage begins with the early card on Friday evening at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT. If you’re watching in America, ESPN+ will be the destination for the show, while DAZN will be streaming the card for those of you living in Canada. Late card action follows at 11 pm ET/ 8 pm PT on ESPN2 inside the United States.
All told, if there are no further adjustments to the bout order for Friday night, the final version of this event will feature nine bouts ranging from tournament alternate contests to quarterfinal action at women’s flyweight and bantamweight.
PFL 2 Main Event: Leandro Higo vs. Josh Rettinghouse
Ahead of Friday’s card, no fewer than seven bouts were canceled for one reason or another. One such cancellation has affected the main event for Friday evening. Heading into this week, the headlining bout was to have been a contest at 125 lbs between Talia Santos (22-4 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025,) last season’s runner-up at women’s flyweight and Juliana Velasquez (13-3, 0-0 PFL 2025.)
Santos, however, withdrew from this weekend’s event, and Velasquez has been rebooked for the early card on Friday. As such, the headlining affair will take place at bantamweight when Leandro Higo (23-6 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025) meets up with Josh Rettinghouse (20-5 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025.)
All fights on Friday night will be an advertised maximum of three rounds at five minutes per round. Higo enters the tournament having posted a record of 4-1 in his last five fights dating back to his days in the late Bellator MMA. At present, he’s on a two-fight winning streak. A year ago, he scored a unanimous decision win over James Gallagher (12-3 MMA) during the inaugural Bellator Champions Series event.
Higo was supposed to have fought Magomed Magomedov over the upcoming weekend until the latter had to withdraw from the show due to an injury he picked up in training camp. He’s spent the last few months preparing for Magomedov and has had to shift to Rettinghouse on short notice. What kinds of adjustments has he had to make to his gameplan?
Across the way, Josh Rettinghouse comes in sporting a record of 4-1 in his own right over the last five bouts. Currently, he’s won four in succession. Last time out, he bested Solomon Jones by way of first-round knockout in 56 seconds just under two months ago on Feb. 15.
This young man is on a hot streak of late and comes into the tournament on quite the high note. Can he keep it up against Leandro Higo?
PFL 2 Co-Main Event: Liz Carmouche vs. Ilara Joanne
Immediately beforehand, the co-headliner moves over to the women’s flyweight ranks as Liz Carmouche (22-8 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025), who went 7-0 in Bellator, makes the walk to the SmartCage for her contest with Ilara Joanne (12-9 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025.) Carmouche has gone 4-1 in her last five fights.
She comes into the tournament reeling, however. Last August, she was bounced from the PFL Playoffs in the semifinals after dropping a unanimous decision to Talia Santos in Nashville. Carmouche was a 2024 crossover from Bellator after the PFL bought the latter promotion in 2023 and formerly held the Bellator MMA Women’s Flyweight Championship.
Can she get back in the win column and work her way toward the championship this season?
In the other corner, Ilara Joanne will travel to Central Florida with a mark of 3-2 over the course of her last five appearances. Back in June of last year, although she defeated Shanna Young (10-8 MMA) by unanimous decision, it wasn’t quite enough to send her to the postseason.
Carmouche will be a good test for Joanne on Friday night. Only time will tell if she can start a sustained winning streak with PFL 2.
PFL 2: Francesco Nuzzi vs. Mando Gutierrez
Also on the late card, you’ll see a bantamweight contest matching Francesco Nuzzi (10-1, 1 NC MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025) with Mando Gutierrez (10-3 MMA, 0-0 PFL 2025.) Nuzzi will touch down in Orlando making his first walk to the cage in close to two years for an MMA bout this weekend.
He’s posted a record of 4-0 with one no-contest in his last five fights. To find the last time he stepped foot in a cage, you’d need to travel back to July 8, 2023. That night. he scored a first-round knockout by way of head kick versus Farbod Iran Nezhad (12-3-1 MMA) in PFL Europe from Berlin, Germany.
Nuzzi has seen no fewer than four different fights get postponed without a punch being thrown, including his originally-scheduled fight for Friday against Matheus Mattos (14-3-1 MMA.) Mattos is instead scheduled to fight Jake Hadley over the weekend.
This is a man who’s only appeared in a grappling match since that fight in Germany. How much ring rust does he have going into this one?
Meanwhile, Gutierrez enters this weekend’s fights with a record of 3-2 in his last five professional contests and has won two consecutive bouts. Most recently, he scored a split decision after three rounds against Goto Joji (17-8-1 MMA) in Tokyo last November. He was supposed to have fought in March vs. Andre Ewell (18-10 MMA), with that fight getting postponed after Gutierrez was signed to the PFL for this tournament.
Will he be able to take advantage of Nuzzi’s ring rust? Tune in and find out.
Final Thoughts
Which fight or fights are you looking forward to on Friday night? Let us know in the comments.
