PFL Releases 2025 Bantamweight Bracket for World Tournament

One Shot to WIN. One Shot to ADVANCE. One Shot at a WORLD TITLE 🏆

Get to know the Bantamweights(135lbs) set to compete in the 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament

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Fighters from a total of eight weight classes will vie for the top prize in Professional Fighters League’s 2025 tournament.

In previous years, the PFL ran its tournaments with six divisions up for grabs. A new development for 2025, the promotion announced on Friday that the bantamweight division would officially be opened, setting the stage for eight weight categories in this season of the tourney. Eight participants, several of whom pulled over from the Bellator MMA-PFL merger, will be part of the 135-pound bracket. A few notable names are absent, including champion Patchy Mix and former beltholders Raufeon Stots, Sergio Pettis and Kyoji Horiguchi.

The roster for this section of the tournament will include five former members of Bellator (Magomed Magomedov, Leandro Higo, Sarvarjon Khamidov, Kasum Kasumov and Ciaran Clarke) along with two recent PFL pickups (Ali Taleb and Zebenzui Ruiz) and free agent from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (Jake Hadley).

Former title challenger Magomedov leads a pack of eight contenders from seven different nations, sporting a lengthy resume with victories over names including Petr Yan, Karate Combat star Edgars Skrivers and Danny Sabatello. Brazil’s Higo competed in Bellator’s bantamweight tourney, falling short to Sabatello in the quarterfinals. Khamidov and Clarke will bring unbeaten records with 16 and 10 wins on their respective ledgers, with both men triumphing on the major stage numerous times including—and all of Clarke’s 10 previous outings came in the Bellator cage.

The 2025 PFL World Tournament kicks off on April 3, with four weekly Opening Round events taking place on the 3rd, April 11, April 18 and May 1 all at a lot on Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. A change from the previous season, victors will take home $500,000 rather than a million dollars all told. The organization will announce the seeding and pairings on March 11 on a bracket reveal show, and the proceedings will take place across the ESPN networks.

Bantamweight Division – 2025 PFL World Tournament

Magomed Magomedov – Russia
Leandro Higo – Brazil
Sarvarjon Khamidov – Tajikistan
Kasum Kasumov – Russia
Ciaran Clarke – Ireland
Ali Taleb – Sweden
Zebenzui Ruiz – Spain
Jake Hadley – England