PFL World Tournament 7: 2025 Semifinals Preview and Predictions

On Friday, Jun. 27, the 2025 PFL tournament season rolls on with middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights. Among those looking to progress at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill. this Friday are Fabian Edwards and Josh Silveira. Those middleweights have the main event honors for this event. The co-main event features Phil Davis vs. Sullivan Cauley in the light heavyweight bracket.

The event airs live in its entirety on ESPN+ starting at 8:30 p.m. ET, with the main card also airing on ESPN starting at 10:30 p.m. ET. Let’s take a look at the preview and predictions.

Fabian Edwards and Josh Silveira have a recent common opponent in Impa Kasanganay, though the results were different; will MMA math work this week, and Edwards advance in the tournament by beating Silveira?

Fabian Edwards was hurt in his fight with Impa Kasanganay in April. However, it’s easy to forget that, given that Edwards was able to shake off the cobwebs and then finish Kasanganay with a flying knee and straight left. Josh Silveira’s unanimous decision loss to Kasanganay was far less dramatic. The same can be said of Silveira’s first-round win over Mike Shipman in this tournament.

This is a classic striker-versus-wrestler match-up with Edwards hoping his big reach advantage and power will be able to prevent him being dragged down and forced to fight off his back. I think he’s got a good chance of doing that. Edwards is hittable, but Silveira doesn’t have great striking. So, Edwards should be able to avoid getting punished for his lack of head movement. I think Edwards’ strikes from distance, in particular body kicks, might wear Silveira down and reduce the risk of him being able to wrestle his way to a decision.

Edwards is capable of pouring it on when he smells blood, so I could see a finish happening in this one. However, I think the most likely outcome is a decision win for Edwards.

Phil Davis has 32 professional fights and Sullivan Cauley only has eight; can Davis utilize his experience en route to a victory?

Phil Davis looked great when he beat Rob Wilkinson in his first round match-upl. In that fight he suffered a knockdown to the hard hitting Wilkinson, but recovered and then landed a beautiful one-two combo against the finish to set up his TKO win.

Sullivan Cauley got through his fight with Alex Polizzi after scoring a win due to “Travis Browne” elbows with his back against the cage. Cauley is now 7-1. The 29-year-old hasn’t got a great deal of experience and Polizzi is the best opponent, by far, he’s ever faced.

I think Davis will be just too well rounded for Cauley. Davis is 40 years old, but he looked very fast and sharp in his fight with Wilkinson. I think we’ll see Davis go back to relying on his wrestling here and show that he’s a level above Cauley in that department. I’m not expecting a finish like his last fight, just a definitive and possibly quite drab decision.

Two former Bellator standouts face off under the PFL banner; will it be Sergio Pettis or Raufeon Stots who comes away victorious?

This is not only an interesting match-up of former Bellator standouts. It’s also a match-up of former teammates with both Pettis and Stots spending most their careers training out of Roufusport in Milwaukee.

This is Pettis’ promotional debut. He’s coming off a loss in boxing. His last MMA fight was a unanimous decision loss to Kyoji Horiguchi in RIZIN. Before that he lost his Bellator bantamweight title to Patchy Mix.

Stots scored a submission win over Marcos Breno on a PFL Super Fights card last October. His only losses in the past ten years are a knockout to Patchy Mix to end his reign with the Bellator bantamweight strap in 2023 and a 15-second spinning backfist knockout to Merab Dvalishvili in 2017.

With how well these two know each other, I think we could get a weird fight here. When teammates meet, sometimes we see a glorified sparring match play out, with neither man that interested in fighting with much aggression. No matter what kind of fight we get, I think Stots is probably going to come out on top.

Stots is a natural bantamweight and will be a lot larger and stronger than Pettis. Pettis’s striking is good for this level, but Stots isn’t far behind. And Stots’s wrestling is far superior to that of Pettis. I think Stots will likely get the win here by forcing Pettis into a wrestling match. I see him taking this by decision.

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

Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Simeon Powell is a very interesting match-up in the light heavyweight tournament bracket. “Shoeface” came through a really tough fight with Kyle Moore in the last round, needing every inch of his grappling advantage to earn a split decision. Powell’s first-round match-up wasn’t close at all. He took out Karl Albrektsson with a brutal barrage of elbows.

Powell is 26 years old with a huge frame for the division. His record is 11-1 with a lot of upside. He should be a very stiff test for Carlos Jr. The Brazilian likely knows that his time is running out to make big paydays in this sport, so I’m interested to see if he can impose his grappling against the larger Powell, while avoiding getting hit by Powell’s power.

Carlos Jr. is a level above anyone Powell has ever faced in his career, so I’m very keen to see whether he can stop the takedown and defend against Carlos Jr.’s submissions on the ground. If he can do that, then PFL might have a very interesting fighter on their hands.

I think this is a very close fight, but I think Carlos Jr. might be able to work his way to another win here, getting key takedowns and spending a lot of time in top position.