Gleison Tibau vs. Joao Zeferino now set for PFL 2 with Magomed Magomedkerimov, Aleksei Kunchenko out

Brazilian welterweights Gleison Tibau and Joao Zeferino will now face each other at Thursday night’s PFL 2 in Atlantic City, N.J., after their original opponents Aleksei Kunchenko and Magomed Magomedkerimov withdrew from the card due to undisclosed reasons, PFL announced.

Magomedkerimov was the PFL season 2018 welterweight champion but hasn’t fought since October 2019, withdrawing from that year’s finals as well. Kunchenko, on the other hand, was set to compete for the first time since going 2-2 in the UFC between 2018 and 2020. It’s still unclear if they will remain on the 2021 season.

Tibau (34-14), a longtime UFC lightweight veteran, decided to move up to 170 pounds after his first-round submission victory over lightweight Will Brooks in July 2019, but has had multiple fights cancelled throughout 2020.

Zeferino (24-9) won 11 of 14 since parting ways with the UFC in 2013, reaching the finals of a one-night, eight-man WSOF lightweight grand prix in 2015 and challenging for the WSOF welterweight gold. Zeferino won his last three inside the PFL cage.

PFL 2 will be headlined by Rory MacDonald’s promotional debut opposite Curtis Millender. Check the complete lineup below.

Main card (ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET)
Rory MacDonald vs. Curtis Millender
Ray Cooper III vs. Jason Ponet
Joao Zeferino vs. Gleison Tibau
Emiliano Sordi vs. Chris Camozzi

Prelims (ESPN+ at 5:30 p.m. ET)
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Tom Lawlor
Vinny Magalhaes vs. Jordan Young
Cezar Ferreira vs. Nick Rothrick
Sadibou Sy vs. Nikolai Aleksakhin
Dan Spohn vs. Marthin Hamlet