Two PFL talents face ex-UFC opposition at PFL Pittsburgh

A pair of de facto Professional Fighters League vs. Ultimate Fighting Championship matches are headed to Steel City.According to the PFL on Thursday, the upcoming event in Pittsburgh just added two matchups featuring newly ranked competitors. The organization released its own official rankings on Tuesday and all booked fighters have a number next to their name. At flyweight, Sumiko Inaba (8-2) will face Ariane Lipski da Silva (17-11), with the two ladies set to face off on March 28 at the UPMC Events Center in Pennsylvania’s second-largest city.

Inaba, 34, will look to bounce back from a one-sided loss to Dakota Ditcheva, who some considered a candidate for “Beatdown of the Year.” That loss to the British striker ended a two-fight winning streak for the Hawaiian, who picked up a win against Saray Orozco on the scorecards and stopped Mackenzie Stiller with strikes. The former Bellator MMA player has never competed as a professional with a major organization.“The Queen” Lipski da Silva will walk into a cage other than the UFC for the first time since 2018 when she faces Inaba. Two years younger than her opponent, the Brazilian will be the much more experienced woman, with more fights in the UFC alone (14) than Inaba in her entire career (10). Lipski da Silva left the promotion after three straight losses, finishing her time with the Las Vegas-based league with a sub-.500 record.

Cold as Arce

The other PFL Pittsburgh matchup announced Thursday features featherweights going at it as domestic PFL fighter Alexei Pergande (7-0) welcomes Julio Arce (21-6) to the former tournament organization. All of Pergande’s appearances as a professional came in the PFL cage, as the youngster known as ‘Russian DNA’ impressed in the defunct Challenger Series and has since built an unbeaten record.Pergande’s seven wins include a trio of submissions, with his two Brabo chokes of Akeem Bashir and Ethan Goss making him the first athlete in company history to land multiple such submissions. Since then, Mark Ewen has secured two such chokes on the PFL Europe circuit to equal his organizational record. The 24-year-old has never competed in a PFL tournament, instead developing as a ‘showcase’ athlete thus far.

Arce’s 10-fight UFC stint came to an end in 2024, despite coming off a knockout win over Herbert Burns. Prior to that match, Arce missed weight, which led to his departure, including a brief attempt to join the ill-fated Global Fight League. When that organization fell apart before getting going, Arce saddled up with the Victory Fighting League promotion in New York and picked up a pair of victories in 2025 over fellow UFC expats Sheymon Moraes and Wilson Reis.