Fight Facts: PFL 2025 World Tournament 9

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: 1,359
TOTAL NUMBER OF PFL EVENTS: 142

The Professional Fighters League held its penultimate World Tournament event on Friday, completing the brackets in the lightweight, bantamweight and women’s flyweight divisions. One result proved to be a real surprise, with the shocking main event playing out as one of the year’s biggest betting upsets. PFL World Tournament 9: 2025 Finals featured the completion of a life-long dream for the new flyweight tourney queen, sweet revenge for an ex-pound-for-pound Brazilian and an Axe Man who defied the odds.

And My Axe: To prevent Gadzhi Rabadanov from becoming a repeat lightweight champion, Alfie Davis swiped a five-round decision from him. “The Axe Man” becomes one of a small number of British champs in company history, joining the likes of Brendan Loughnane and Dakota Ditcheva.

No One Told Him the Odds: Davis prevailed as a massive +700 underdog over the -1400 Rabadanov. His is the third-largest upset this year, while slotting in as one of the 10 widest plus-money victories in company history.

It’s a KO, Liz: Achieving a bucket list item when she won the PFL flyweight bracket, Liz Carmouche performed what she claims is her first clean knockout—a debut body kick knockout of Trudie Ginn in 2010 may have been of the technical variety.

Champ to Champ: The final Bellator MMA flyweight queen, Carmouche is now the second ex-Bellator champion to come over to PFL after the merger and win a belt. Cristiane Justino did so first in 2024, while Johnny Eblen and Usman Nurmagomedov defended their own Bellator straps in the PFL cage.

Speedrunning 135 Pounds: In only three fights, Marcirley Alves decisioned his way to a PFL tournament championship. He outworked Justin Wetzell to earn the $500K check, becoming the first bantamweight grand prix winner in PFL history.

I Like to Call It Lost Wages: Robert Watley needed over two and a half rounds to overcome Mads Burnell, recording the stoppage at 2:43 of the third frame. “Contact” has now fought out of the first round in 15 straight fights dating back to 2015.

Got One Back: Winning the rematch against Ekaterina Shakalova, Juliana Velasquez avenged her most recent career defeat. The only unavenged losses for Velasquez are to Carmouche, who topped the Brazilian on three straight occasions by three different methods of victory.

Lot of Hype for a Kid: As a tremendous -1400 betting favorite, 24-year-old Sabrina de Sousa came in and outhustled Saray Orozco. While de Sousa went to the scorecards for the first time in her young career, Orozco has reached the 15-minute mark in nine straight outings.

More Danger from Dagestan: Staying unbeaten at 10-0 by crushing Vilson Ndregjoni with a knee and follow-up punches, Renat Khavalov improved his finish rate to 70% as a pro. All of his stoppages have come by knockout.

Mixing Things Up: Now sporting a stoppage rate of 86% professionally, Chris Mixan did so by punching out previously undefeated Kendly St. Louis. All but one of his finishes have come via strikes.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into PFL 2025 9, Shakalova had never dropped consecutive bouts (12 fights), Ndregjoni had never been knocked out (15 fights) and Diggs had never been defeated (five fights).