{"id":150651,"date":"2026-03-28T04:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150651\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:20:10","slug":"prime-picks-pfl-pittsburgh-ufc-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150651\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Picks: PFL Pittsburgh, UFC Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A
\nhigh-stakes middleweight clash headlines PFL Pittsburgh: Tune in
\nLIVE, Saturday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a> and the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> on Saturday will stand
\nnose-to-nose before the buying public, albeit 2,500 miles apart,
\nwhen
\nPFL Pittsburgh \u201cEblen vs. Battle\u201d<\/a> unfolds at the UPMC Events
\nCenter in western Pennsylvania and
\nUFC Seattle \u201cAdesanya vs. Pyfer\u201d<\/a> goes down at Climate Pledge
\nArena in the Pacific Northwest. There should be an ample supply of
\nintrigue at both locales.<\/p>\n

Strap in, as we examine the cards from a bettor\u2019s perspective and
\nattempt to maximize our investment in the latest installment of
\nPrime Picks:STRAIGHT-UP CASH<\/p>\n

\nThe former Bellator
\nMMA<\/a> champion figures to be as motivated as ever when he zeroes
\nin on UFC refugee Bryan
\nBattle<\/a> in the PFL main event. Eblen, 34, finds himself on the
\nrebound for the first time, having fallen from the ranks of the
\nunbeaten through a technical submission loss to Costello
\nvan Steenis<\/a> in the fifth round of their PFL Champions Series 2
\nencounter on July 19. The
\nAmerican Top Team<\/a> rep entered the cage with a perfect 16-0
\nrecord and raced out to a clear lead on the scorecards, then lost
\nhis way across the final 10 minutes before being put to sleep by a
\nrear-naked choke in the waning seconds. A re-energized and
\nrefocused Eblen could be quite a handful for his counterpart.
\nBattle was jettisoned by the UFC after a series of missed weight
\ncuts and looks to land on his feet in his PFL debut. \u201cThe Ultimate
\nFighter\u201d Season 29 winner has proven vulnerable to Eblen\u2019s
\nstrengths in the past, most notably during a December 2022
\nunanimous decision defeat to Rinat
\nFakhretdinov<\/a> in which he surrendered seven takedowns. An
\naccomplished amateur wrestler, Eblen was an NCAA qualifier with
\nmore than 80 victories at the University of Missouri and has always
\nleaned into those skills in MMA. Battle could be in for a rough
\nnight.
\n
\n\u2019DOG WILL HUNT<\/p>\n

\nArce has always managed to fly under the radar despite an extensive
\ntrack record of success. The
\nTeam Tiger Schulmann<\/a> mainstay and former two-division Ring of
\nCombat<\/a> champion draws his first assignment under the PFL banner
\nin a featherweight showcase opposite the undefeated Alexei
\nPergande<\/a>. Arce, now 36, steps into the spotlight on a
\nthree-fight winning streak that dates back to his days in the UFC.
\nHe last saw action in the New York-based Victory Fighting League
\norganization, where he punched out Wilson Reis<\/a>
\nexactly two minutes into their Oct. 24 confrontation. Arce faces an
\nuphill climb in his PFL debut. Pergande has established himself as
\none of the company\u2019s most promising homegrown talents with seven
\nstraight wins, three of them by submission, to start his career.
\nWhile he has been installed as the rightful favorite (-130), the
\n24-year-old has not yet faced anyone anywhere near Arce\u2019s caliber.
\nAll the pressure to perform falls on Pergande, which makes his
\nopponent a worthy flier.
\n
\nAN ACCUMULATION CONTEMPLATION<\/p>\n

Michael
\nChiesa<\/a> Wins Inside the Distance (-170)
\nTotal Odds: +367
\n
\nEverything appears to be in place for Pyfer to launch himself to
\nstardom. The
\nDana White\u2019s Contender Series<\/a> graduate gets his crack at one of
\nthe top dogs in the middleweight division when he dukes it out with
\ntwo-time champion Israel
\nAdesanya<\/a> in the UFC Fight Night 271 headliner. Pyfer, 29, has
\nwon eight of his past nine bouts\u2014a decision loss to the crafty
\nJack
\nHermansson<\/a> was the only hiccup\u2014and seems to be on a steady
\nascent after consecutive victories over Marc-Andre
\nBarriault<\/a>, Kelvin
\nGastelum<\/a> and Abusupiyan
\nMagomedov<\/a>. Plus, he wields some of the heaviest hands in the
\n185-pound weight class. On the other side of the equation, Adesanya
\nfinds himself in a career-worst tailspin following
\nback-to-back-to-back defeats to Sean
\nStrickland<\/a>, Dricus Du
\nPlessis<\/a> and Nassourdine
\nImavov<\/a>. The setback against Imavov was particularly troubling,
\nas he failed to get out of the second round. Any further slippage
\nfrom the 36-year-old
\nCity Kickboxing<\/a> star would leave him alarmingly vulnerable to
\nwhat Pyfer does best.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Grasso and Barber are entrenched as Top 5 contenders in
\nthe UFC women\u2019s flyweight division ahead of their showdown in the
\nco-main event, and they seem to be exceedingly well-matched on
\npaper. That could lead to plenty of give and take between them,
\npotentially resulting in a bogged-down stalemate. The heightened
\nstakes of their position on the card could also conspire to create
\ncaution and inaction, as they attempt to separate themselves from
\none another. Experience and resume favor Grasso, who went 1-1-1 in
\na trilogy with current champion Valentina
\nShevchenko<\/a>. Questions still surround Barber after she suffered
\na seizure that resulted in a last-minute fight cancellation with
\nErin
\nBlanchfield<\/a> less than a year ago. She put some doubts to rest
\nwith a unanimous decision over Karine
\nSilva<\/a> at UFC 323 on Dec. 6, but she still has some ground to
\ncover in order to restore some of the shine she lost. The services
\nof the judges will almost certainly be needed to settle the score
\nbetween these two.<\/p>\n

Finally, Chiesa closes out his career in a welterweight feature
\nopposite Nico Price. The Sikjitsu standout has enjoyed a
\nserviceable if unspectacular tenure in the UFC since he burst on
\nthe scene as an unbeaten prospect in 2012. Chiesa, 38, heads into
\nhis supposed \u201cretirement fight\u201d on the heels of three straight
\nvictories over Tony
\nFerguson<\/a>, Max Griffin<\/a>
\nand Court McGee<\/a>.
\n\u201cThe Ultimate Fighter\u201d Season 15 winner has nailed down more than
\nhalf (12) of his 19 pro wins by submission, providing him with a
\nclear path to the winner\u2019s circle against his latest adversary.
\nPrice fills in as a short-notice replacement for Carlston
\nHarris<\/a> and does so with a reputation as a
\nlive-by-the-sword-die-by-the-sword competitor. Only six of his 28
\nbouts have gone the distance, and he has lost twice via submission
\nto opponents\u2014Brandon
\nThatch<\/a> and George
\nSullivan<\/a>\u2014with far weaker grappling profiles than Chiesa. Expect
\n\u201cMaverick\u201d to ride off into the sunset on a high note. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-stakes middleweight clash headlines PFL Pittsburgh: Tune in LIVE, Saturday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1165,68718,139,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-150651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-article","tag-fight-odds","tag-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}