Lance Palmer is moving on to the inaugural PFL postseason.

The former WSOF featherweight champion punched his ticket to the playoffs with a third-round submission finish of UFC veteran Jumabieke Tuerxun on Thursday night in the main event of PFL 4 at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. A four-time NCAA All-American, Palmer (14-3) used his bread-and-butter wrestling to dominate Tuerxun (20-8) from the opening bell. The 30-year-old American scored takedowns in all three rounds, then closed out the show with a nasty stoppage via neck crank at 3:43 of the final frame.

“It was a neck crank similar to what I did a few years ago against (Chris) Horodecki, but I was underneath this time and not on top flattening him out,” Palmer said. “It’s definitely a mean move and it hurts, and there’s only one way to go — it’s to tap or to let it break.”

Having also scored a second-round rear-naked choke over Bekbulat Magomedov to kick off the season, Palmer now heads into the featherweight playoffs holding the No. 2 seed.

“I’m in there,” Palmer said. “I’m just looking forward to that first matchup in the quarters, and then we’ll go from there, whoever I have left in the quarters. It doesn’t really matter [who it is] — we’ve got to beat everybody to be a millionaire.”

In the night’s co-main event, another former WSOF featherweight champion, Andre Harrison (19-0), used a measured, tactical approach to outclass Nazareno Malegarie (33-5) and cruise into the featherweight postseason with back-to-back unanimous decision wins.

Harrison beat Malegarie to the punch from pillar to post, piecing him up from range and completely stifling the Brazilian’s decorated grappling game. Harrison’s best round was the second frame, as the undefeated 30-year-old nearly dropped Malegarie twice with big right hands. In the end, all three judges scored the contest 30-27 for “The Bull,” locking Harrison into a tie for the No. 3 seed following his other decision win over Tuerxun at PFL 1.

“Next one is the playoffs, so win and advance,” Harrison said. “Right? That’s the name of the game, everybody. Win and advance.”

Elsewhere on the night, former UFC light heavyweight Francimar Barroso (21-7, 1 NC) continued to show that heavyweight may indeed be his true weight class. The Brazilian ran a top-position clinic on Jack May (10-4), first tripping the 6-foot-8 American to the floor after catching a kick, then methodically working his way into side control and locking up a nasty arm-triangle choke to coax a tapout at 1:36 of the opening round.

With back-to-back first-round stoppages under his belt, Barroso clinched the No. 1 seed in PFL’s upcoming heavyweight playoffs.

Fellow Octagon veteran Steven Siler (31-17) also clinched a No. 1 seed in the featherweight bracket with his second consecutive first-round stoppage of the season, although this time around he had a little help from referee Dan Miragliotta.

After dropping featherweight opponent Alexandre Almeida (19-8) with a short right hand in the bout’s opening seconds, Siler quickly caught the Brazilian in a tight guillotine choke. However, a tap never came. Instead, Miragliotta prematurely stopped the contest at :34 of the first round, likely under the mistaken belief that Almeida was unconscious. Both Siler and Almeida immediately protested the stoppage, but by then it was too little, too late — the damage had already been done.

In the opening bout of the televised main card, Bellator veteran Philipe Lins (11-3) and former UFC light heavyweight Alex Nicholson (12-6) also punched their respective tickets into the PFL heavyweight postseason, however not in a way that Nicholson likely would’ve preferred. The American suffered a brutal knockout loss at the hands of Lins, succumbing to punches at 3:39 of the second round.

Nicholson appeared to be well on his way to winning the contest, having rocked Lins midway through the second round with a series of hard punches along the fence, however the Brazilian kept his wits about him and ultimately landed a bone-rattling four-piece counter combination of looping left and right hooks that signaled the beginning of the end for “The Spartan.” Lins continued his assault, dropping Nicholson with another salvo of looping hooks, then sealed the deal with a series of hard hammerfists.

Complete PFL 4 results can be found here. Updated standings for the heavyweight and featherweight season can be seen below.

Heavyweight

1. *Francimar Barroso (2-0) — 12 points
2. *Kelvin Tiller (2-0) — 11 points
3. *Philipe Lins (2-0) — 8 points
4. *Jack May (1-1) — 6 points
5. *Alex Nicholson (1-1) — 5 points
6. *Valdrin Istrefi (1-1) — 5 points
7. *Jared Rosholt (1-1) — 3 points
8. Josh Copeland (1-1) — 3 points
9. Jake Heun (0-1) — 0 points
10. Caio Alencar (0-1) — 0 points
11. e- Shawn Jordan (0-2) — 0 points
12. e- Daniel Gallemore (0-2) — 0 points

Featherweight

1. *Steven Siler (2-0) — 12 points
2. *Lance Palmer (2-0) — 9 points
3. *Andre Harrison (2-0) — 6 points
4. *Timur Valiev (2-0) — 6 points
5. *Alexandre Almeida (1-1) — 6 points
6. *Max Coga (1-1) — 4 points
7. *Nazareno Malegarie (1-1) — 3 points
8. Magomed Idrisov (0-1) — 0 points
9. Lee Coville (0-1) — 0 points
10. e- Jumabieke Tuerxun (0-2) — 0 points
11. e- Marcos Galvao (0-2) — 0 points
12. e- Bekbulat Magomedov (0-2) — 0 points

* clinched playoff birth

e- eliminated from playoff contention