Fight Facts: PFL 2025 World Tournament 8

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Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL FIGHTS: 1,339
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 140

The Professional Fighters League commenced part one of three of its finals events this August. With two title tilts atop the billing, the undefeated finalists reigned supreme. 2025 PFL World Tournament 8: Finals featured four athletes with spotless records keeping them intact, one of the latest finishes seen in the PFL cage and more than one stoppage between rounds.

Enough Is Enough: A pair of matches on the card ended between rounds, with Jordan Newman and Sarek Shields prevailing after five-minute beatings. PFL 2025 8 is the second card in organizational history to feature multiple stoppages after the bell. PFL 2023 Europe 4 was the first.

More Lopsided Than Ever: Three combatants came into this event as betting favorites over -1000: Jordan Newman, Jakub Kaszuba and Tom Pagliarulo. All three officially prevailed at night’s end, making this event the fifth this year with PFL to have that many favored fighters of that magnitude.

A Weight Class Apart: Thad Jean claimed the welterweight tournament championship by outworking Logan Storley over five rounds. The Florida native is now a perfect 11-0 as a pro, becoming one of a small number of unbeaten fighters to win PFL gold. He joins names including Kayla Harrison, Dakota Ditcheva and Movlid Khaybulaev.

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The $1.5 Million Man: Khaybulaev snatched an arm-triangle choke on Jesus Pinedo to secure his second tourney title in PFL. “Killer” becomes one of eight combatants in company history to win multiple PFL tournaments, with the first being Lance Palmer in 2019.

Better Late Than: The stoppage for Khaybulaev came at 1:17 of the fifth frame, giving the Russian the third Round 5 finish in World Series of Fighting-PFL history. Costello van Steenis’ 4:51 choke out of Johnny Eblen two weeks ago is the latest.

Do You Know: In 2020, Asael Adjoudj dropped his professional debut to Constantin Blanita. Since then, the Frenchman has rattled off 10 straight wins, culminating in a decision triumph over Yves Landu.

It Was Supposed to Be So Easy: To retain a flawless record, Newman overcame adversity and forced Eslam Abdul Baset Syaha to quit on the stool after five minutes. The 30-year-old fought outside of the defunct confines of Bellator MMA for the first time, with his previous seven wins coming under its banner.

Fuzzy Scorecard Math: Snaking a decision over Sergio Cossio, Poland’s Jakub Kaszuba is now a perfect 15-0 professionally. He has competed beyond the first round in 14 of those 15 bouts.

Technically Schmechnically: After three rounds, Husein Kadimagomaev lost a contentious split decision to Kyle Driscoll. The defeat is technically Kadimagomaev’s first, although his previous outing against Zafar Mohsen also went that way only to be overturned when Mohsen failed a drug test.

Out of Position: With referee Giovanna Scano missing the tap, Frederik Duplas put Nathan Kelly to sleep with a guillotine choke. Kelly becomes the second fighter in organizational history to lose twice by technical submission, with Jason High first earning this dubious honor in 2018.

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Calling Marvin Eastman: Shields split Nicholas Meck’s left eyebrow from end-to-end to force doctor intervention. He has now earned two knockout wins, with both coming by doctor stoppage.

The Cartel Strikes Again: To kick off the card, Pagliarulo crushed Matt Turnbull with a knee to the body and follow-up strikes. The New England Cartel export lifted his pro finish rate to 90% by knocking out Turnbull for the first time in his career.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into PFL 2025 8, Pinedo had never been submitted (32 fights), Syaha had never dropped consecutive bouts (20 fights) and Meck had never been finished (11 fights).