Sadibou Sy, Olivier Aubin-Mercier seal PFL playoff quotes with KO wins

ATLANTA– Sadibou Sy simply continues to develop himself as the male to beat in the PFL’s welterweight department– and looks truly excellent doing it.

Sy (15-6-2) protected his area in the PFL’s 2023 playoffs on Friday, with a highlight-reel spinning head-kick knockout over Shane Mitchell at PFL 6 inside Overtime Elite Arena. The success marked his 6th in a row, and he’s aiming to duplicate a champion run of 2022.

The Swedish kickboxer will enter this year’s playoffs as the No. 3 seed, however with the clear momentum of a No. 1 seed. He has actually put away both of his challengers this year. His knockout on Friday was available in the 2nd round of a battle he was currently running away with. Mitchell decreased, and the battle was stopped without a follow-up shot.

Sy will deal with No. 2-seed Carlos Leal, who knocked out Dilano Taylor on Friday, in the semifinals. Sy beat Leal (19-4) by means of consentaneous choice in in 2015’s playoffs. Previous champ Magomed Magomedkerimov (32-6) is the welterweight’s No. 1 seed, thanks to a fast surface of David Zawada on Friday. He will deal with Magomed Umalatov in the semifinals.

Light-weight Olivier Aubin-Mercier (19-5), another PFL champ from 2022, likewise punched his ticket to the 2023 playoffs with a third-round surface of Anthony Romero in Friday’s centerpiece. The bout was waved off in the 2nd round after Aubin-Mercier landed a disastrous knee to Romero’s chin along the fence.

Aubin-Mercier protected the No. 2 seed and will deal with yet another previous PFL champ in Natan Schulte (25-5-1), who got a choice win over Raush Manfio in an unusual battle that saw 2 buddies square off. Fan preferred Clay Collard (23-10) will seek his very first PFL champion as the No. 1 seed. He’ll deal with Bruno Miranda (16-3) in the semifinals.

Shane Burgos (16-4), a significant acquisition by the PFL in 2022, got a win over Yamato Nishikawa on Friday however stopped working to make the playoffs. It’s uncertain whether Burgos will combat once again in 2023 now that he has actually missed out on the PFL’s postseason. He lost by means of choice to Aubin-Mercier in the opening round of the routine season in April.