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Brett Okamoto, ESPN Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO — The PFL's 2024 regular season got off to a strong start Thursday with four heavyweights earning bonus points with knockout wins.
Russian heavyweight Valentin Moldavsky (13-3) defeated Ante Delja (24-6) by knockout in the first round to lead the division with six points. Oleg Popov (17-1) and Daniel James (15-7-1) are second and third with five points, respectively, while PFL veteran Denis Goltsov (33-8) has three points. He finished the round with 4 points and was in 4th place. Linton Vassel's.
The opening game of the 2024 season was held inside the Boeing Center. This will be PFL's first seasonal event since acquiring Bellator MMA late last year. Moldavsky, who trains under mixed martial arts legend Fedor Emelianenko, is one of the top fighters to come over from Bellator, and the former interim champion didn't disappoint, hitting the fence just 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the opening round. He finished Deriha off with a blow.
In addition to the big finish at heavyweight, the other story of the night was Manchester's Dakota Ditcheva (11-0) who crushed Lisa Mauldin (6-4) in her PFL flyweight regular season debut. )was. Dicheva, 25, hurt Mauldin with long-range kicks to his legs and ended up dropping him multiple times to take first place. She is 6-0 in PFL competition with six finishes, five of which were within the first round.
Three-time defending flyweight champion Liz Carmouche (21-7) also had a strong performance in her three-round decision over former champion Juliana Velasquez (12-3). Carmouche has defeated Velasquez three times in the past two years and took three points with Thursday's win. Carmouche is widely seen as one of the favorites to win this year's PFL Championship, along with former UFC title challenger Tyra Santos (20-3), who defeated Ilara João in the first round.
Following Thursday's opener, Dicheva, Santos and Jena Bishop (7-0) tied for first place at 125 pounds. Carmouche and Japan's Kana Watanabe (13-2-1) are tied for fourth and fifth with three-point decision wins.
The PFL regular season continues next week in Las Vegas with the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions.
