PFL 2025 World Tournament: First Round 4 Preview and Predictions

On Thursday, May 1, the Professional Fighters League rolls on with its 2025 PFL World Tournament down at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. This week, they’re finishing off the first round action with the opening fights in the heavyweight and light heavyweight brackets. In these brackets, we’ll find well-known names like Phil Davis, Antonio Carlos Jr. and Karl Albrektsson.

The event airs live on ESPN+ starting at 7:30 p.m. ET. The main card also airs on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET. Let’s take a look at the preview and predictions.

Both Phil Davis and Rob Wilkinson enter this year’s tournament on the heels of a loss; which standout light heavyweight emerges with a win?

“Mr. Wonderful” Phil Davis is set to make his PFL debut this week. He’s one of the many contracts purchased out of Bellator. Davis appeared 15 times in Bellator, winning a light heavyweight tournament and the 205-pound belt, but then lost it immediately after. Most recently, Davis dropped a split decision to Corey Anderson.

Davis’ opponent is PFL mainstay Rob Wilkinson. The Aussie won the million-dollar check with a TKO of Omari Akhmedov back in the 2022 PFL Championships. He’s coming off a unanimous decision loss to Dovlet Yagshimuradov. That snapped a winning streak that included a first round TKO of Tom Breese.

Despite being 40, Davis’s game hasn’t looked as if it’s seriously declined, yet. He remains the prototypical smothering wrestler, who can grind out wins and do so in a fashion that is entirely unremarkable and forgettable.

The 33-year-old Wilkinson will be hoping to keep Davis off him long enough to land big punches. Wilkinson also has nasty strikes inside the clinch. Against a prime Davis, those clinch shots would come with some risk of being taken down. But, against the Davis we’re going to see this weekend, I think Wilkinson is going to be very eager to let his offense fly.

I think this is a very close fight, but I do see WIlkinson having the edge over Davis. I think enough of his shots will get through, and they will cancel out any wrestling superiority Davis shows to the judges. Davis is extremely tough and an expert at avoiding big finishing shots, as he’s never been stopped despite facing the likes of Anthony Johnson, Lyoto Machida and Glover Teixeira. Because of that, I’m doubting Wilkinson gets a stoppage, but put me down for a unanimous decision win for the Australian.

Russian countrymen face off against one another in the co-main event; will it be Valentin Moldavsky or Sergey Bilostenniy who gets the victory?

Valentin Moldavsky is yet to really take off in PFL. He stopped former PFL heavyweight winner Ante Delija quickly in his PFL debut last year, but followed that up with a loss to Linton Vassell.

He failed to really establish himself in Bellator, too. In Bellator, he won the interim heavyweight title after beating Tim Johnson, but then lost to Ryan Bader. After a no-contest, he was then stopped by Vassell.

Sergey Bilostenniy has fewer big names on his resume, but he is undefeated in the PFL with wins over Blagoy Ivanov and Tyrell Fortune. Bilostenniy is a rare “fun heavyweight” who lands things we’re not used to seeing in the division, like spinning wheel kicks and heel hooks.

Moldavsky is more of a standard “stand-and-bang” heavyweight. He’s going to want to brawl with Bilostenniy. I think Bilostenniy’s creativity, movement and speed might cause Moldvasky a lot of problems, though.

If Moldavsky gets wild in this fight, I think he’ll miss and eat something big that puts him down and out.

Antonio Carlos Jr. won the 2021 PFL tournament; how does he kick off his bid to once again claim the belt?

Antonio Carlos Jr. is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Alex Polizzi in last year’s PFL regular season. That was his first loss since leaving the UFC in 2021. During that stretch, he won the 2021 PFL light heavyweight championship.

In the first round of this tournament, he drew Karl Moore. Moore hasn’t fought since losing to Corey Anderson over a year ago. He has Bellator wins over Polizzi and Karl Albrektsson. He’s a solid, albeit not spectacular, fighter with decent striking and a good motor.

Carlos Jr’s grappling is a level beyond anything Moore has ever faced in his career, though. I think we’ll see the Brazilian, who is still only 35 years old, snatch a submission once this thing hits the ground.

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

Simeon Powell is the most exciting prospect on this card. That’s not that special, though, given the majority of this card is aging fighters who are known for boring fights. Powell, though, is an exciting and explosive striker who is 10-1. His lone loss was a brutal TKO loss to Jakob Nedoh in the 2023 PFL Europe light heavyweight championship fight. Powell was winning that fight before getting caught with a huge right hook.

He’s fighting Karl Albrektsson, who puts on exciting fights – sometimes to his own detriment. He’s coming off a brutal KO loss to Chuck Campbell in his hometown of Stockholm. He’ll be desperate to get back into the win column this week.

These two might put on a war and, if they do, I fancy Powell to land the bigger shots. Powell also has a nasty leg kicking game. He might beat Albrektsson down with low kicks before moving up and landing something big like a flying knee or superman punch.