PGF Season 9 Week 2 Recap: Beuhring Takes the Lead, Twisters Surge in Las Vegas

The Professional Grappling Federation (PGF) Season 9 regular season is heating up after an explosive Week 2 in Las Vegas. Kevin Beuhring of the Alabama Twisters seized the individual lead, the team race tightened dramatically, and the submission rate kept fans glued to their screens across YouTube, Kick, and PGF.world. With the halfway point arriving this Wednesday for Week 3, the race for the 2026 PGF championship is wide open.

For those unfamiliar, the PGF is the first professional jiu jitsu league in the world. Four franchise teams — the Las Vegas Kings, Alabama Twisters, Philadelphia Phenoms, and Colorado Wolverines — compete across a five-week regular season followed by playoffs. Each Wednesday night from Las Vegas, 20 elite grapplers face off in fast-paced, submission-only matches that reward finishes over stalling. It is the format that grappling has needed for years, and Season 9 is delivering in a big way.

Week 2 Results: A Night of Submissions

Week 2 delivered 30 scheduled matches and the pace was relentless. The mat featured ankle locks, rear naked chokes, armbars, heel hooks, D’arce chokes, and an Estima lock — the kind of technical variety that separates PGF from every other grappling event on the calendar. Several athletes went perfect on the night, setting up a fiercely competitive second half of the season.

The biggest story was Kevin Beuhring’s three-win sweep for the Twisters. Beuhring ankle-locked Noah McCully, then finished both Caleb Crump and Jared Fekete with rear naked chokes. That perfect night vaulted him from sixth place into the overall individual lead at 24 points, just one point clear of the Kings’ Jett Thompson. It was the kind of statement performance that changes the tone of a whole season.

Chuy Magana matched Beuhring’s energy for the Kings with his own three-submission night. Magana hit ankle locks against Noah McCully, Jake Straus, and Brett Moyer — a clinic in lower-body attacks that had the commentary team calling him one of the breakout performers of the entire event. The Kings needed every one of those points to maintain their team lead as Alabama surged behind them.

Elijah Carlton, the PGF’s most decorated competitor across multiple seasons and weight classes, went 3-0 as well. Carlton heel hooked Jayden Groner in his opener, then closed the night with back-to-back armbar finishes over Derek Rayfield and Cameron Hurd. His rise to 15 points gave the Twisters serious depth alongside Beuhring and Travis Haven.

Team Standings After Week 2

The team race compressed significantly in Week 2. Here is where things stand heading into the halfway point:

Rank	Team	Points
1	Las Vegas Kings	60
2	Alabama Twisters	53
3	Philadelphia Phenoms	32
4	Colorado Wolverines	9

The Kings still own first place, but the gap has shrunk. Alabama posted the strongest Week 2 team performance, cutting the margin from what was a comfortable cushion down to just seven points. The Twisters are now firmly in the hunt, and with Beuhring, Carlton, and Haven all firing, they have the firepower to push Las Vegas all the way to the finish.

Philadelphia sits at 32 points, led by Shawn Melanson (14 points) and Andrew Kochel (12 points). Both are dangerous enough to turn a single Wednesday night into a season-changing surge, but the Phenoms need their supporting cast to step up fast.

Individual Leaderboard: Top 10

Rank	Athlete	Team	Points
1	Kevin Beuhring	Twisters	24
2	Jett Thompson	Kings	23
3	Austin Oranday	Kings	19
4	Chuy Magana	Kings	18
5	Elijah Carlton	Twisters	15
6	Shawn Melanson	Phenoms	14
7	Travis Haven	Twisters	14
8	Andrew Kochel	Phenoms	12
9	Jared Fekete	Kings	9
10	Jake Straus	Twisters	8

The Kings hold four of the top ten individual spots, which explains their team lead. But the Twisters counter with three athletes in the top seven, including the overall leader. This race could swing on any given Wednesday, and that tension is exactly what makes the PGF format so compelling for fans.

Notable Performances and Finishes

Beyond the big three sweeps, several other athletes left their mark on Week 2:

Travis Haven submitted Andrew Kochel with a triangle choke and then hit a counter-leglock to finish Sam Schwartzapfel. Haven’s ability to find submissions from bad positions makes him one of the most unpredictable athletes in the league, and his 14 points have him tied for sixth overall.

Austin Oranday continued his strong season with a D’arce choke against Schwartzapfel and an Estima lock on Anthony Salisbury. The Estima lock — a foot lock applied from a passing position — was one of the more technical finishes of the night and showed the depth of Oranday’s attacking game.

Jett Thompson kept himself in the individual race by submitting Haven with a rear naked choke and earning bonus points when Clayton Wimer picked up multiple penalties. Thompson’s consistency week over week has been the backbone of the Kings’ success.

Andrew Kochel opened strong with a heel hook over Cameron Hurd and rallied from a loss to ankle-lock Clayton Wimer in his final match, finishing with 7 points on the night. Kochel remains Philadelphia’s best hope of inserting themselves into the top half of the individual standings.

Caleb Crump kept the Wolverines’ slim playoff hopes alive by submitting replacement athlete Armin Bruni with a D’arce choke. Crump is now the highest-scoring Wolverine at 6 points, but Colorado needs a full team surge to climb out of the basement.

Week 3 Preview: The Halfway Point

Week 3 hits Wednesday, March 18 — the midpoint of the PGF Season 9 regular season. The card features several lineup changes that add intrigue to an already tight race:

• Jeo Ortiz steps into three Alabama Twisters spots, replacing Anthony Salisbury. Ortiz gives Alabama another weapon as they chase the Kings.
• Armin Bruni and Derrick Adkins enter the Philadelphia Phenoms lineup, replacing Noah McCully and Kyle Chambers. The Phenoms need these new faces to deliver immediately.
• Jonathan Wilson and Jayden Groner return for the Colorado Wolverines, giving them more depth for a potential spoiler run.
• The Las Vegas Kings are the only team making no changes — a sign of confidence at the top.

The key matchups to watch: Chuy Magana vs. Kevin Beuhring pits Week 2’s breakout King against the current individual leader. Jett Thompson draws newcomer Derrick Adkins, while Andrew Kochel faces Jeo Ortiz in a late-card bout that could shift momentum between the Phenoms and Twisters.

How to Watch PGF Season 9

Every Wednesday at 4 PM Pacific (Thursday 8 AM for those of us in Taiwan), PGF Season 9 streams live across multiple platforms. You can catch all the action on YouTube, Kick.com, and directly at pgf.world. Week 3 also adds Creator TV to the distribution network, expanding PGF’s reach even further.

The remaining schedule runs through April 8, with three more regular season weeks plus playoffs. If Week 2 is any indication, the second half of this season is going to be a war.

Watch the Full Week 2 Replay

Why PGF Matters for Grappling

The Professional Grappling Federation represents something the jiu jitsu community has debated for over a decade: can submission grappling work as a spectator sport with a league format? Eight seasons in, the answer increasingly looks like yes. The team-based structure, weekly schedule, and submission-first ruleset create narratives that individual tournaments never could. When Beuhring took the lead from Thompson in Week 2, it was not just one athlete passing another — it was the Twisters making a real run at the Kings.

For BJJ practitioners and combat sports fans in Taiwan and across Asia, PGF is one of the most accessible ways to follow high-level no-gi grappling. The free YouTube streams, combined with the fast pace of the matches, make it easy to jump into even if you have never followed a grappling league before. Season 9 is shaping up to be the most competitive yet, and the halfway point is the perfect time to start paying attention.

Stay tuned to Taipei BJJ for weekly PGF recaps throughout the rest of Season 9. The season runs every Wednesday through April 8, culminating in the 2026 PGF Playoffs.