PFL World Tournament 9: 2025 Finals Preview and Predictions

The Professional Fighters League continues to wrap up its 2025 season this weekend with final championship bouts in its men’s lightweight, men’s bantamweight and women’s flyweight tournament brackets. The action goes down this Friday, Aug. 15 at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Alfie Davis serves as the main event, with one of those men looking to be crowned the lightweight champ. The women’s flyweight final is the co-main with Liz Carmouche taking on Jena Bishop. The bantamweight final sees Marcirley Alves face Justin Wetzell.

The event airs live in its entirety on ESPN+ starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. The main card also airs on ESPN starting at 9 p.m. ET.

Gadzhi Rabadanov hasn’t seen a second round yet in 2025 action; can he secure the championship while keeping that streak intact against Alfie Davis?

Gadzhi Rabadanov has been a wrecking machine in PFL and Bellator, and he’s currently on a 12-fight winning streak. His most recent win was a quick destruction of Kevin Lee. Before that, was an even quicker destruction of Marc Diakiese.

Alfie Davis is a big underdog in this bout. He’s coming off a decision win over Brent Primus. Before that he scored a sensational spinning back elbow win over Clay Collard.

Rabadanov has felt destined to take this title since the tournament was announced. He’s simply looked unstoppable in recent years, feeling free to unleash his devastating striking with his superb wrestling skills as a safety net. Davis is a fun fighter, but there’s nothing he does that Rabadanov isn’t much better at.

I think we’re going to see Rabadanov push that win streak to thirteen and probably do it in a violent fashion on Friday.

Former Bellator champion Liz Carmouche is looking to add PFL gold to her mantle; can the veteran earn a win by defeating rising star Jena Bishop?

Liz Carmouche may be 41 years old, but she’s still looked levels above all she’s faced in this year’s tournament. The “Girl-Rilla” has added more striking to her smothering wrestling game this time around and looked especially good in her first-round finish of Ilara Joanne.

Jena Bishop, who is 39, used her grappling to get through Kana Watanabe and Ekaterina Shakalova in previous rounds. Her two pro losses are to Dakota Ditcheva – the best woman not fighting in UFC – and former UFC title challenger Taila Santos.

Carmouche doesn’t have the same high-powered kickboxing that Ditcheva and Santos have, but I think her striking might be enough to cause Bishop some problems. Bishop’s path to victory is taking Carmouche down and threatening her with submissions. Carmouche is very experienced and well-versed in BJJ for MMA, though. She’s only been submitted twice in her long career – by Ronda Rousey and Marloes Coenen.

I think Carmouche is going to have the wherewithal to avoid Bishop’s submission attempts, and I think her striking and her motor are going to ensure she’s the one being first to the punch and finishing on top in wrestling exchanges. I see her getting the decision here.

Both Marcirley Alves and Justin Wetzell have gone to decisions in their 2025 regular season fights; with the title at stake will one of these men get a finish?

Marcirley Alves was a short-notice opponent for Leandro Higo in Round 1. He surprised the pre-tournament favorite with a split decision. After that, he looked very comfortable in getting the unanimous decision over Jake Hadley. Alves’ striking looked very good in that fight.

Justin Wetzell beat Mando Gutierrez and Kasum Kasumov in the previous rounds, thanks to his wrestling.

This is a classic striker vs. wrestler match-up. I think Wetzell, the wrestler, probably has the edge. Though, I think this is a very close fight where both men will hear the final bell, again. I’m predicting a back-and-forth fight where Wetzell gets his takedowns, but Alves also lands a few hard shots.

When forced to pick a winner here, I’ll go with Wetzell, believing those takedowns and the resulting control time will be enough to satisfy the judges.

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

Biaggio Ali Walsh is not even in the top 10 for most talented fighters on this card. Yet, he’s one of the more interesting characters here. And, I think his fight with Adryan Grundy is one of the more interesting bouts below the tournament finals. Ali Walsh, someone PFL has promoted a lot due to his family connection to the great Muhammad Ali, is coming off his first pro loss. He was choked unconscious by Ronnie Gibbs last time out as a -1430 favorite. That dropped his record to 2-1. How does he respond to this?

Grundy will be making his PFL debut on Friday. He’s 3-1, and the biggest stage he’s fought on so far is with CFFC, where he went 1-1. He’ll be fighting with no pressure and no expectations, which could make him a very dangerous opponent.

The pressure is firmly on Ali Walsh now to prove this MMA game is something he’s suited for. This kind of narrative makes his fight with Grundy a fascinating sleeper match-up.