PGF World Season 7 has now begun and we can now recap all of the best action and biggest moments from day 1 on November 4th, 2024. The season opened with the customary draft and although there was plenty of tense moments there, it’s safe to say that the real action hadn’t begun yet. With everyone’s teams set, it was time for them to hit the mats and start scoring points in attempt to make it to the playoffs and win the team grand prize of $100,000. Let’s take a look at who stood out the most, and who still has a lot of work left to do before they can reach the playoffs.
PGF World Season 7 Day 1 Recap
There was a ton of submission finishes on the first night, something that should be a great sign for the coming days. Normally PGF is a bit of a slow burner with most competitors pacing themselves throughout the week, but this time everyone came out all guns blazing. There were a few people who were clearly out to make a big impression and have start off their run to the title early, but a lot of it was also helped by the promotion’s aggressive stalling calls. Although they might have seemed excessive at times, it’s undeniable that they pushed the action and helped drive the finishing-rate high.
Top Performers
There were two men who stood out the most on day 1 of PGF World Season 7, as they were the only ones to finish the day with two wins. Ryan Aitken scored the most points of everyone and he started off very strong, locking up a heel hook against Davis Asare with less than a minute left in the match. A horrible crunch came from Asare’s ankle and there was concerns that his week had come to an end, but he returned for the rest of his matches and plans to continue. Aitken’s second win was his most impressive though, as he submitted Chris Wojcik with a rear-naked choke and finished the day by scoring 9 individual points.
Marcin Maciulewicz was the other man with two wins, and he also injured his first opponent. He hit a beautiful step-over kneebar against Andre Porfirio and although Porfirio defended well, Maciulewicz switched to a Z lock for the finish. He scored an additional point for that as he got the finish in the first minute, and he was just as impressive in his second match. He hit another heel hook against Brad Schneider, although this time it was off a K-guard entry from the bottom instead. Maciulewicz finished with 7 points of his own and he finds himself in second place just behind Aitken.
Other Winners
Paul Ardila was actually the first man to get a submission win and by heel hooking Brad Schneider in under a minute, he scored 4 points on his first day. The highest scorer from a single win was PGF veteran Elijah Carlton though, as he submitted Dory Aoun with exactly the same triangle choke that he’s used to great effect in this format in the past. Ernesto Rivera also got some points on the board and his heel hook win over Nathan Haddad was enough to put Pedro Sauer and New Hope Regeneration to the top of the team leaderboard after Aitken’s incredible day.
Although Ardila was the highest scorer for Roger Gracie and 1st Phorm, he was one of three team members who got a submission win. The wildest submission of the day came from his teammate Kyle Chambers, who went from having his back taken to submitting Nathan Haddad with an ankle-lock in the blink of an eye. Adam Bradley hit an ankle-lock to get his win, submitting Caleb Crump in the final match of the night. The only other finish of the night came from Abraham La Montagne, as he stepped in to replace an injured Andre Porfirio and submitted Brad Schneider with a kneebar.
PGF World Season 7 Standings After Day 1
Pedro Sauer & New Hope Regeneration – 12 Points
Ryan Aitken – 11 points
Ernesto Rivera – 5 points
Travis Thomas – 2 Points
Bradley Schneider – 2 Points
Cameron Hurd – 2 Points
Roger Gracie & 1st Phorm – 10 Points
Paul Ardila – 6 points
Adam Bradley – 5 points
Kyle Chambers – 5 points
Kyle Boehm – 2 Points
Dory Aoun – 2 Points
Carlos Machado & Intrana – 9 Points
Elijah Carlton – 7 points
Abraham La Montagne – 4 points
Davis Asare – 1 Point
Nathan Haddad – 1 Point
Andre Porfirio – 1 Point
Caleb Crump – 1 Point
Dean Lister & Constellation Network – 7 Points
Marcin Maciulewicz – 8 points
Kemoy Anderson – 1 Point
Sebastian Attard – 1 Point
Fedor Nikolov – 1 Point
Chris Wojcik – 1 Point
The full replay of the PGF World Season 7 day 1 has been uploaded to the official UFC Fight Pass YouTube channel:
