PFL World Championship 2021 Features Biggest Night in Lightweight Women’s MMA History

The 2021 PFL World Championship airs on October 27th on ESPN2 and ESPN+.

Photo courtesy of www.pflmma.com.

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) 2021 season comes to a conclusion on Wednesday, October 27th with their 2021 World Championship event televised live on ESPN2 and ESPN+. Along with its unique format (two regular season fights, playoffs, and a championship fight with a $1,000,000 on the line in each weight class), the PFL is also unique with their championship card featuring three women’s lightweight (155 lbs) fights on their biggest card of the year.

At a time when most promotions fail to have a women’s lightweight division, this PFL event features six women in three intriguing fights after having already put together a group of eight combatants in this weight class for their regular season format. The standard bearer for women’s lightweight fighters at this time is the event headliner, two-time judo Olympic gold medalist and 2019 PFL champion, Kayla Harrison. She takes on Taylor Guardado in the final to decide the winner of the $1,000,000 and the PFL women’s lightweight championship.

Also on the main card is Claressa Shields, making her second entry into the cage after making her name as one of the greatest women’s boxers of all time, taking on Abigail Montes. And former Bellator featherweight (145 lbs) title holder Julia Budd fights Kaitlyn Young in a bout between two very experienced fighters, with Budd trying to establish herself as a viable threat at lightweight. From a combat sports accomplishment standpoint, having Harrison, Shields, and Budd on the same card is as well as can be currently done in this division.*

This also presents great opportunities for Guardado, Montes, and Young to make their marks at PFL’s biggest event of the year. Guardado has the biggest mountain to climb facing Harrison. Currently Harrison has shown that she is far and away the best lightweight female fighter in the world and it may take some time for the rest of the species to evolve to provide some opponents who can truly compete with Harrison. That said, Taylor Guardado won all of her PFL fights in 2021 and this is MMA, this is why they lock the cage and ring the bell, you never know what could happen.

Next is Abigail Montes as the next test for Claressa Shields’ crossover into MMA. Montes is a 21 year old fighter with a 2–0 record in MMA. Montes will have one more MMA fight than Shields heading into this contest, though the overall combat experience clearly lays with Shields who has been boxing professionally since 2016 and made her way to the elite echelon of that sport. Shields is still a large favorite according to the odds makers, but Montes will be looking to get her name shining on the radar quickly if she can secure the main card victory.

Kaitlyn Young has been competing in MMA since 2007. Young takes on all comers, evidenced by her third professional fight being against Miesha Tate (a fight in which Young won by the way). Young’s record is just slightly above .500, but she still brings her fight anyone/anytime mentally to every contest. As for Julia Budd, her goal is to be the clear cut next biggest threat to whoever wins the lightweight championship fight later in the evening. Budd also seems willing to take on the toughest opponents available as she has a 15–3 record with her only losses being to Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey in 2011, and Cris Cyborg at featherweight in Bellator in early 2020.

This is shaping up to be the biggest night in women’s MMA lightweight history.

*Fighter records and opponents were obtained from www.sherdog.com and www.pflmma.com