Sadibou Sy, Olivier Aubin-Mercier seal PFL playoff bids with KO wins - ESPN

ATLANTA — Sadibou Sy just continues to establish himself as the man to beat in the PFL's welterweight division — and looks really good doing it.

Sy (15-6-2) secured his spot in the PFL's 2023 playoffs on Friday, with a highlight-reel spinning head-kick knockout over Shane Mitchell at PFL 6 inside Overtime Elite Arena. The victory marked his sixth in a row, and he's looking to repeat a championship run of 2022.

The Swedish kickboxer will enter this year's playoffs as the No. 3 seed, but with the clear momentum of a No. 1 seed. He has put away both of his opponents this year. His knockout on Friday came in the second round of a fight he was already running away with. Mitchell went down, and the fight was stopped without a follow-up shot.

Sy will face No. 2-seed Carlos Leal, who knocked out Dilano Taylor on Friday, in the semifinals. Sy defeated Leal (19-4) via unanimous decision in last year's playoffs. Former champion Magomed Magomedkerimov (32-6) is the welterweight's No. 1 seed, thanks to a quick finish of David Zawada on Friday. He will face Magomed Umalatov in the semifinals.

Lightweight Olivier Aubin-Mercier (19-5), another PFL champion from 2022, also punched his ticket to the 2023 playoffs with a third-round finish of Anthony Romero in Friday's main event. The bout was waved off in the second round after Aubin-Mercier landed a devastating knee to Romero's chin along the fence.

Aubin-Mercier secured the No. 2 seed and will face yet another former PFL champion in Natan Schulte (25-5-1), who picked up a decision win over Raush Manfio in a bizarre fight that saw two best friends square off. Fan favorite Clay Collard (23-10) will seek his first PFL championship as the No. 1 seed. He'll face Bruno Miranda (16-3) in the