2025 PFL World Tournament 5: Semifinals Preview and Predictions

On Thursday, Jun. 12, the PFL touches down at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. for the semifinals of its welterweight and featherweight tournament brackets. The main event will feature two 170-pounders with former Bellator champ Jason Jackson meeting the impressive newcomer Thad Jean.

The co-main has former PFL winner Jesus Pinedo, who destroyed Artur Borics in the previous round, meeting Gabriel Braga in the featherweight bracket.

The other welterweight semifinal has Logan Storey and Kikuiri Masayuki meeting. The remaining featherweight semifinal is Movlid Khaybulaev vs. Tae Kyun Kim.

The prelim fights include lots of fighters who can step in on short notice to fill a spot in the semis. Among those fights are Jeremy Kennedy vs. Adam Borics at featherweight and Magomed Umalatov vs. Anthony Ivy, who is replacing Andrey Koreshkov, at welterweight.

The preliminary card airs live on ESPN+ starting at 8:30 p.m. ET, followed by the main card on ESPN+ and ESPN starting at 11 p.m. ET. Let’s take a look at the preview and predictions

Thad Jean enters the semifinals with an undefeated professional record; can he defeat former Bellator champion Jason Jackson and move to 10-0 while advancing to the finals?

Thad Jean has looked superb against low-rung PFL opponents during his young career. Last time out he used his flashy striking to get by Mukhamed Berkhamov (the best opponent of his career). Jean is young and very athletic, but I don’t think he has the chops, yet, to beat Jason Jackson.

Jackson won a weird fight over Andrey Koreshkov in the previous round. Jackson was dominating that fight, but things got strange after he landed some accidental, though illegal, blows to the back of Koreshkov’s head. Koreshkov didn’t take his full allotted time to recover and instead walked into a takedown and fight ending choke.

That win took the 34 year-old Jackson to 19-5 as a pro. I think the former Bellator champ’s wrestling and grappling will be too much for Jean to handle. Jean has a puncher’s chance, of course, but Jackson’s reach advantage mitigates that somewhat.

I’m expecting Jackson to drag Jean down early and spend a lot of time in top position throughout this fight. On the ground, I think Jackson is eventually going to wear Jean down and then pull off a sub.

Jesus Pinedo needed less than one round to defeat Adam Borics in the opening round; does he replicate that success against Gabriel Braga?Logan Storley lost his PFL debut but has been undefeated since then; can he stay hot and punch his ticket to the finals by besting Masayuki Kikuiri?

Logan Storley moved to 17-3 as a pro when he shut down Joseph Luciano in the previous round. The only losses in his career are that defeat to Shamil Musaev in his PFL debut and two losses to Yaroslav Amosov in Bellator (who remains one of the best fighters operating outside the UFC).

Masayuki Kikuiri is on a nice run; five straight wins across PFL, Bellator and Pancrase. However, his strength of schedule is a lot weaker than Storley’s. Storley has been in there, and beaten, a few decent names at the PFL/Bellator level.

I think his all around game will be just too tight for Kikuiri and Storely will work his way to another decision win.

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

Jeremy Kennedy vs. Adam Borics is a very fun fight. Both guys are also coming into this one with a lot to prove. Kennedy just missed out on the semifinals after a very close split decision loss to Movlid Khaybulaev. I scored that fight for Kennedy. Given the dramatic difference between winning a PFL season/tournament and anything else, losing a bad decision must especially sting.

Borics also has something to prove. He was put away quickly by Jesus Pinedo. That’s despite him coming into PFL as a sleeper pick to possibly win the tournament. Both these guys are probably front of the line as alternates in the featherweight tournament. That gives extra incentive to go out and win this one.