Timur Khizriev and Gabriel Braga are official for Friday’s PFL Chicago headliner. The promotion posted results Thursday morning on X showing Khizriev at 145.4 pounds and Braga at 145.8. That’s four-tenths of a pound between them, which in a featherweight fight is roughly the weight of a wet hand wrap.
The PFL followed up Thursday afternoon with a behind-the-scenes video from the scales, captioned with the observation that fight week is never boring. Judging by the numbers, the day was refreshingly dull in the way you want it to be. The promotion posted results for seven bouts in total, and none of them came with a missed-weight notice.
The full scale
Here’s how the rest of the card the PFL posted shook out:
View post on X
- Liz Carmouche (125) vs. Jena Bishop (124.6): Carmouche hit 125 exactly, and Bishop came in lighter.
- Paulina Wisniewska (125.6) vs. Chelsea Hackett (125.6): An identical reading for both women, which is the kind of symmetry you rarely see on a weigh-in sheet.
- Sarvarjon Khamidov (135.8) vs. Rafael Do Nascimento (135.4): Bantamweight, with Do Nascimento the lighter man by four-tenths. The PFL’s post spelled his surname “Nasicmento,” which I’m going to assume was a social media typo and nothing more.
- Gamid Khizriev (155.6) vs. Michael Boylan (155): Boylan weighed in flat at 155.
- Eliezer Kubanza (170.2) vs. Trey Waters (170.4): The welterweights finished two-tenths apart.
- Emiliano Sordi (205.2) vs. Abraham Bably (205.8): The heaviest pairing the promotion posted, and still under a pound apart.
So that’s two Khizrievs on one card, Timur at featherweight and Gamid at lightweight. The PFL’s posts didn’t address whether the two are related, so I won’t either.
View post on X
What’s next
PFL Chicago goes Friday, October 16. The early card starts at 6 p.m. ET on the ESPN App, and the main card follows at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The promotion’s posts didn’t specify bout order beyond the headliner, so check the broadcast if you’re planning your evening around a particular fight.
Quick take
I’ll take a clean weigh-in sheet over a dramatic one every time. Every miss turns a fight into a negotiation, and every negotiation ends with somebody walking out Friday having spent Thursday sitting in a sauna instead of rehydrating. Nobody on this card gave us that storyline, and the women’s 125-pound side deserves particular credit. Carmouche landed on the number, Bishop came in under it, and Wisniewska and Hackett matched each other to the tenth. None of that tells you who wins, but it does mean the fights get decided by what happens in the cage. Khizriev and Braga have one more night to refuel before the main card hits ESPN2 at 11 p.m. ET Friday.
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