Gleison Tibau Meets Joao Zeferino at PFL 2 After Two Fighters Withdraw from Card

There has been some shuffling to this week’s PFL 2 lineup, and the end result is a welterweight showdown between Gleison Tibau and Joao Zeferino.

Tibau was originally slated to meet Alexey Kunchenko, while Zeferino was slated to face Magomed Magomedkerimov on Thursday’s card at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However, both Kunchenko and Magomedkerimov were forced to withdraw from the event due to undisclosed reasons. Sherdog.com confirmed the changes with a source close to the situation on Sunday.

A veteran of 28 UFC bouts, Tibau enters his PFL debut on a two-fight winning streak after besting Efrain Escudero and Will Brooks in his last two outings. The 37-year-old Brazilian has not competed since submitting Brooks at Battlefield FC 2 in July 2019.

Zeferino, meanwhile, has been victorious in four of his last five bouts. Most recently, he earned a unanimous verdict over Bojan Velickovic at a regular season PFL event in July 2019.

The PFL’s second 2021 regular season event features light heavyweights and welterweights and is topped by a 170-pound showdown between Rory MacDonald and Curtis Millender. The main card airs on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT.