PFL 2025 World Tournament: First Round 3 Preview and Predictions

This Friday, Apr. 18, the Professional Fighters League continues its 2025 PFL World Tournament at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. Last week we had the bantamweights and women’s flyweights brackets competing. This week it’s the turn of the middleweights and lightweights. And there are lots of recognizable faces, from PFL and beyond, in these brackets. Let’s hope these fights make it through the weigh-ins this time.

The event airs live on ESPN+ starting at 5 p.m. ET. Let’s take a look at the preview and predictions.

Former Bellator standout Fabian Edwards got off to a rough start in the PFL; can he rebound in his sophomore outing and defeat Impa Kasanganay?

Things haven’t been great for MMA’s Edwards family lately. Fabian Edwards’ famous brother Leon lost his UFC belt last year and was beat down by Sean Brady four weeks ago. The larger, lesser-known Edwards is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Johnny Eblen in October. That was for Eblen’s Bellator middleweight title. Edwards had challenged Eblen for that belt before, losing by TKO back in 2023. Despite being a Bellator veteran, Edwards has never fought in a tournament setting.

His opponent, Impa Kasanganay, is also new to tournaments. Though, he’s had a lot of success in the PFL Smart Cage. In 2023, Kasanganay earned the million-dollar check by beating Josh Silveira at that year’s PFL World Championships as a light heavyweight. That win helped many of us move on from his viral knockout loss to Joaquin Buckley in his UFC days. After that, Kasanganay dropped a split decision to Eblen at the PFL vs. Bellator show last year. He, then, finished runner-up in the 2024 PFL light heavyweight tournament, losing to Dovlet Yagshumuradov by first round TKO.

This has the makings of a very close fight, with both men not especially excellent at one area of MMA. We’ll likely see a kickboxing match between the two. If there’s wrestling to be done, Kasanganay will probably be the one to initiate it. Kasanganay has fought at middleweight plenty of times before, but he’s looked far more comfortable as a light heavyweight. In a close match-up, I favor the man who is more comfortable in the weight class. In addition to being the more practiced and successful middleweight, Edwards is also larger and longer than Kasangany.

This is Marc Diakiese’s PFL debut; how does the longtime UFC veteran look under another new promotional banner?

There was a time when Marc Diakiese was one of the most exciting young British fighters in the sport. After some brutal knockouts to start his UFC career, the wheels came off for ’’Bonecrusher,’’ and he was released in 2023. Last year, he got a win in Bellator, taking a unanimous decision over Tim Wilde. He’s been given a nightmare match-up in the first round of his first PFL tournament, though. Gadzhi Rabadanov looked great last time out, controlling and then brutally putting away Brent Primus, to win the 2024 PFL lightweight championship.

If these two brawl it out, we could be in for a very fun fight. Diakiese would have a puncher’s chance in that scenario. However, Rabadanov is very well-rounded and his sambo skills are probably going to mean Diakiese spends a lot of time on the mat and stuffed against the fence. Diakiese’s submission defense will be tested down there. If Diakiese can stay alive in the wrestling and grappling exchanges, he’ll probably get pretty tired as a result. That would make Rabadanov’s striking even more dangerous.

I think this will be a long night for the Brit.

Sadibou Sy won the 2022 PFL tournament; can the one time champion start off a new season on the right foot?

Sadibou Sy comes into his first-round match-up with Dalton Rosta as a slight favorite. The Swede won the 2022 PFL championship as a welterweight, beating Dilano Taylor. In 2023, he finished runner-up, losing to Magomed Magomedkerimov by submission. He has now jumped from welterweight to light heavyweight. He’s had mixed results since then, losing to Josh Silveira due to a thumb injury and then knocking out Andre Sanchez.

Rosta fought his entire pro career in Bellator, graduating from the postlims to the main card. He lost to his toughest opponent to date, Aaron Jeffrey, by unanimous decision in 2023.

Sy comes into this fight at 38 years old. Rosta is yet to turn 30. I think there could be an upset on the cards here, with the younger and very athletic Rosta being capable of taking Sy down and grinding out a decision win. Sy’s striking is better than Rosta’s, and he has a decent sized reach advantage, but I’m not sure how much he has left in the tank at this stage of his career.

Which fight is the sleeper match-up on this card?

Jay Jay Wilson fought most of his career as a massive featherweight. Since 2022, he’s been plying his trade as merely a very big lightweight. “The Maori Kid” lost his lightweight debut, to the aforementioned Gadzhi Rabadanov, in 2022. Since then, he’s beaten Vladimir Tokov and Mansour Barnaoui. He also had a grappling match with Aljamain Sterling in Karate Combat.

On Friday, he fights the highly experienced Mads Burnell. Burnell is very tough and has some great grappling (see his Japanese necktie wins in Cage Warriors). He hit his ceiling in Bellator with losses to Pedro Carvalho and Adam Borics in 2022. He remains a decent fighter for this level of competition, though.

He and Wilson could put on a very fun fight with some mad scrambles on the ground.