PFL Challenger Series 5 Main Event Breakdown

The second half of this year’s PFL Challenger Series season kicks off when Universal Orlando plays host to Friday night’s card at 9 pm ET/ 6 pm PT on fubosportsnetwork.com. As usual, the event will feature a four-fight card.

A week ago Friday, the lightweights took to the PFL Smart Cage. After a second-round submission thanks to a rear-naked choke, Elvin Espinoza secured the guaranteed contract at 155 lbs. with a sweep of the judges’ and fans’ votes.

Women’s Flyweights Get a Shot This Week in PFL Challenger Series 5 Main Event

PFL Challenger Series 5 sees the women’s flyweights enter the cage. After some reshuffling of the card in the run-up to fight night, the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event is locked in.

Kaytlin Neil (6-4 MMA), an alumna of Combate Global, Invicta FC, the LFA, and Bellator MMA, will try to lock up a guaranteed deal for the new season as she faces off against Katherine Corogenes (3-1 MMA.) All Challenger Series bouts are treated as though they were regular season and semifinals, so this main event will be a maximum of three rounds at five minutes per round to close the show.

Star power will be in full effect on Friday night. Not only will the competitors try and impress free agent quarterback Sam Darnold, the No. 3 overall selection by the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft, but Megan Anderson, who retired from MMA last year, is also serving as a celebrity judge.

PFL Challenger Series 5 Main Event Fighter Comparison

Heading into the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event on Friday night, Kaytlin Neil stands as the taller contestant at 5-foot-8, compared to the 5-foot-7 frame of Katherine Corogenes. Neil owns a three-inch reach advantage (68 inches to 65 inches) over Corogenes, with the contenders level in leg reach (40 inches apiece.)

As it stands currently, the oddsmakers have Kaytlin Neil installed as a -360 favorite, with Katherine Corogenes countering as a +290 underdog. If you plan on betting on this or any other fight happening this weekend, please wager responsibly.

Ultimate Fighter Alumnae Kaytlin Neil Seeks PFL Contract on Friday

Kaytlin Neil has gone 4-1 in her last five professional fights. Most recently, she scored a unanimous decision victory after three rounds against Hannah Guy (4-2 MMA) on Sept. 28 during Invicta FC 49 on YouTube and AXS TV.

Before that, Neil was one of the contestants in the 2022 season of The Ultimate Fighter television series on ESPN+. During last season’s women’s flyweight competition, she went 1-1, being eliminated from the show after dropping a second-round submission (kimura choke) during the semifinals in the July 19 episode.

In an interview uploaded to YouTube a week after her elimination was aired on TV, Neil discussed something that’s become a mainstay of the reality genre: Manipulative editing used to manufacture a feud between participants.

“I think a lot of what you saw is what you got,” Neil said with a slight laugh. “I think some people were complaining about what edits they got, but I’m like, ‘You said the thing like they didn’t change your words'”.

Neil was concerned that the show would edit her footage to portray her as the heel or arrogant.

“I don’t think I did anything that was like, villainous, but I was trying to get people to think that I was,” she said. “Also, I was a little bit worried for the last fight coming up, because I did lose, so I thought they were going to pull all the parts that made me look cocky and then just show me getting my butt beat up.”

While the limelight from Kaytlin Neil’s stint on reality TV has gone out, the spotlight of the Challenger Series shines in her direction this Friday. Can she bring a contract home? Watch to find out.

Katherine Corogenes Looking to Shake Off Defeat From November

In the other corner, Katherine Corogenes has gone 3-1 thus far in her young MMA career. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, she suffered defeat for the first time when she was on the wrong end of a first-round knockout against Dakota Ditcheva (7-0 MMA, 2-0 PFL) in a showcase bout during PFL 10.

Corogenes is a fighter who more than made up for lost time last year. Before a June 11 win, she hadn’t been inside an MMA cage since November of 2019.

That night, she defeated Qi Yang by third-round knockout for her first career win. Ring rust is never easy for a fighter to have to overcome.

Over the last year, however, Katherine Corogenes has managed to shake it off. Can she shake off her loss from last fall in the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event? Only time will tell.

Analysis, Film Study, and Prediction

Stylistically, the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event looks to favor Katherine Corogenes, a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, compared to Kaytlin Neil’s background as a Muay-Thai fighter.

Kaytlin Neil Is Slick With Submissions

It’s only happened once in her professional MMA career, but the video doesn’t lie: Kaytlin Neil has a brilliant ground game and it’s led to a submission victory. It was on full display when she went up against Pamela Boveda in Combate Global in October of 2021.

During the third and final round, after Neil had been dominant over the first 10 minutes of action, she began by throwing feints to keep Boveda honest. Boveda got the opening salvo of the round with a leg kick, but Neil kept the pressure up with more feints and put Boveda in the clinch to control the pace of the fight.

While in the clinch, Neil became the aggressor, mixing up some knees with punches to the head of Boveda. About two or so minutes into the round, the fight returned to the clinch, where Neil applied the necessary torque to lock in a standing guillotine choke.

If Kaytlin Neil can use the ground game to her advantage, look for her to try to hunt for the submission. It could be the opening she needs to win the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event.

Katherine Corogenes Can Score The Submission, Too

In the other corner, please do not discount Katherine Corogenes’ submission prowess, because she can make her opponents tap and nap, as well. Just ask Sahar Safari, who was on the wrong end of a Corogenes armbar last summer.

Although the fight was slated to be three rounds at five minutes apiece, Corogenes needed less than half of one to end the show. Corogenes began with a brief flurry of punches before Safari put her against the ropes of the ring, causing the referee to break up the clinch.

About a minute into the round, Safari took Corogenes down and landed some elbows on the ground to try and soften her up for a possible submission, but the latter was able to reverse position and secure top mount. From there, she softened the former up with ground and pound.

Smelling blood in the water, Corogenes rolled Safari over and sank in an armbar. Her opponent had no other option but to go to sleep.

If Corogenes can take Neil down to the cage mat early, she can assert her dominance and make Neil tap out in the PFL Challenger Series 5 main event.

Final Thoughts

You’ve heard it from us before, but here it is again: The first takedown of this fight may very well be the last takedown of the fight. Whichever fighter scores a takedown of her opponent first likely has the inside track to a victory and a PFL contract.

Prediction: Katherine Corogenes by First-Round Submission.

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