6/28/25: Fabian Edwards Scores Dominant Win At PFL 'World Tournament' Semi-Finals
A full recap of the tournament action from PFL's latest show.
Welcome to a Saturday edition of the Knockdown Daily! Before today’s busy lineup of fights, with three big events and other smaller things happening around the scene, we have a quick news catch-up for you. Along with a recap of PFL’s tournament fights, we have a few other smaller news stories in the notes. Let’s begin!
Fabian Edwards Closes Out PFL ‘World Tournament’ Semi-Finals With Impressive Win
The semi-final round of PFL’s “World Tournament” came to a close at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, USA on Friday night, with championship matchups in the middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight classes lined up through for an August 21st card in Hollywood, Florida.
Here’s a quick rundown of the six tournament bouts that took place in the late-night hours of Friday:
Fabian Edwards Puts on Strong Performance To Secure Finals Spot Against Dalton Rosta
Fabian Edwards left no doubts that he was the better fighter after 15 minutes in the cage against Josh Silveira in Friday’s main event.
Fabian, the brother of former UFC champion Leon Edwards, had a dominant showing on Friday night after dropping a back-and-forth opening round.
No matter where the fight went, Edwards used his effective striking to hurt Silveira. In the clinch, Edwards would freeze Silveira with hard knees to the body. In top positions, hard elbows would connect. And on the feet, he put together solid punch combinations to stay ahead.
Along with crafty striking, Edwards made the most of Silveira’s wrestling-focused style. Not only was the English talent able to stuff takedown attempts from the American, but often would reverse the shots into more advantageous positions, either in a clinch or on the ground.
While the fight started in a way that looked like it would be a close battle, it became clear near the end that Edwards had pulled away on scorecards and was set to advanced in the tournament.
Edwards, a two-time Bellator title challenger, might be able to earn the first gold of his pro career later this year in the middleweight finals. He’s now scored a pair of impressive wins so far this year, previously finishing past PFL champ Impa Kasanganay in the quarter-finals earlier this year.
A loss for Silveira on Friday meant that he has yet to obtain a title through four years in PFL’s tournament system.
Dalton Rosta, the opponent for Edwards in August, had an incredibly close win over Aaron Jeffery to advance on Friday.
In a performance which avenged his sole pro loss, Rosta’s striking on the feet was seen as the more effective work from judges compared to the clinch-focused gameplan from Jeffery.
Rosta had his best moments at the stand-up range with Jeffery, allowing him to connect with his boxing. But Jeffery constantly came forward for clinch positions up against the cage, using these spots to chip away at Rosta with elbows, knees and punches. Both fighters finding success in different parts of the fight made it a hard one for judges to decipher.
“I thought I won the fight, but you never know with these judges,” Rosta said afterward, saying he scored it 29-28 in his favor.
Rosta, a former Bellator prospect, took his only pro defeat back in 2023 when he dropped a decision to Jeffery. After avenging that loss, he will now advance to his first-ever title fight in a little under two months.
Former PFL Champ Antonio Carlos Junior To Meet Prospect Sullivan Cauley In Light Heavyweight Finals
2021 PFL champ Antonio Carlos Junior will try for a second light heavyweight title when he faces Sullivan Cauley later this year.
Carlos Junior out-struck a hesitant Simeon Powell to win via decision on Friday’s card.
Without a single TKO win to his record, Carlos Junior isn’t known as a striker. Yet, it was his work on the feet that mainly allowed him to cruise past Powell through three rounds this weekend. Carlos Junior exploded forward with punches, coming at Powell with hard right hands through all three rounds. While Powell was also active and landing his own shots, he was out-struck and certainly didn’t score the more impactful shots.
When not at a kickboxing range, Carlos Junior controlled Powell in body lock positions. However, it could be argued that even without those moments in a body lock, the grappling specialist did enough to win the fight.
Carlos Junior most notably won the PFL Light Heavyweight Championship in 2021, submitting Marthin Hamlet in the first round of their title bout. The upcoming matchup will be his second-ever title shot in the promotion.
Cauley pulled off a huge upset in the co-main event of the night, taking down former UFC and Bellator vet Phil Davis with a competitive unanimous decision win.
While Davis executed a solid gameplan—both showing his stand-up skills and utilizing wrestling—Cauley scored the bigger shots throughout the fight, allowing him to take a scorecard victory. He most notably stole the second round from Davis by putting together a pair of big moments, first rocking the vet with a head kick, then later knocking him down with a right hand.
The appearance was a big test for Cauley, who hadn’t fought deeper than a single round in a pro fight prior to Friday night. But he proved to keep up solid cardio into the final minutes of the fight, finishing strong against Davis.
Cauley, a 29-year-old prospect who made his pro debut in just 2020, started his PFL tournament earlier this year with a 96-second victory over Alex Polizzi. Due to Davis’ significant experience edge over him, Cauley was seen as a +300 underdog heading into the bout.
Cauley must now regroup and prepare for an even bigger challenge in late August, when he takes on Carlos Junior in a fight that could go as deep as five rounds, if needed.
Groin Shot Foul Advances Alexandr Romanov To Heavyweight Final Against Oleg Popov
At heavyweight, an unfortunate foul moved Alexandr Romanov into the semi-finals.
Former interim Bellator heavyweight champ Valentin Moldavsky threw what was intended to be a knee to the body of Romanov during a clinch position late in the opening round of their heavyweight semi-final fight.
However, instead, the shot went square onto the groin of Romanov. The Moldovan fighter was in visible pain for minutes following the shot, quickly eliminating any hope of the fight continuing after the foul. He was eventually stretchered out of the cage.
Officially, the fight was ruled a no contest, as the foul was deemed unintentional. But, since the bout was part of a tournament where someone needed to advance to the finals, judges were asked to score who had the better performance before the foul finish.
They decided that Romanov would advance.
While not the way he wanted to earn a victory, Romanov now finds himself in a PFL grand final appearance in his first-ever year with the company. The former UFC talent made his PFL debut just earlier this year, submitting veteran Timothy Johnson in the quarter-final round via guillotine choke.
Romanov is expected to return in August to take on Russia’s Oleg Popov, who will be trying for a second year to win a PFL title fight.
Popov utilized a mix of wrestling control and boxing to get past former UFC talent Rodrigo Nascimento on Friday’s prelims. The ex-Bellator talent got Nascimento to the ground numerous times in the first and second rounds, controlling him for an overwhelming amount of the fight.
Then, once he had already banked enough of a lead to win on scorecards, Popov started to mix his striking into the fight late, stinging the Brazilian talent with a hard right cross in the final round.
Popov came up short in the heavyweight finals last year, getting submitted by Denis Goltsov. But following decision wins over Nascimento and, earlier this year, Karl Williams, he now has a second chance to claim gold.
Also on Friday night, Sergio Pettis overcame fellow former Bellator Bantamweight Champion Raufeon Stots with a three-round unanimous decision result.
Here are the quick results from the card:
Main Card (10:30PM EDT) (ESPN / ESPN+)
Bout 9: Fabian Edwards def. Josh Silveira via Decision, Unanimous (Middleweight Semi-Final)
Bout 8: Sullivan Cauley def. Phil Davis via Decision, Unanimous (Light Heavyweight Semi-Finals)
Bout 7: Sergio Pettis def. Raufeon Stots via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Dalton Rosta def. Aaron Jeffery via Decision, Split (Middleweight Semi-Final)
Bout 5: Antonio Carlos Junior def. Simeon Powell via Decision, Unanimous (Light Heavyweight Semi-Final)
Preliminary Card (8:00PM EDT) (ESPN+)
Bout 4: Valentin Moldavsky vs. Alexandr Romanov via No Contest, Accidental Groin Shot (RD 1, 4:26) (Heavyweight Semi-Final)
Bout 3: Ronnie Gibbs def. Biaggio Ali Walsh via Submission, Arm Triangle Choke (RD 2, 2:45)
Bout 2: Oleg Popov def. Rodrigo Nascimento via Decision, Unanimous (Heavyweight Semi-Final)
Bout 1: Rafael Xavier def. Karl Albrektsson via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:27)
Notes On: Today’s Events, UFC, RIZIN & More
Today’s Events
Lots of stuff is happening today. The biggest attraction will be UFC 317, which is a pretty solid main card for a pay-per-view, headlined by Ilia Topuria (16-0) and Charles Oliveira (35-10) battling it out for the vacant lightweight title. Flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja (29-5) will also face Kai Kara-France (25-11) in the co-main event in a rematch from “The Ultimate Fighter.”
If you want to watch something in the afternoon, Cage Warriors and OKTAGON will both have title fights on. At OKTAGON, former UFC talent Zhalgas Zhumagulov (17-9) will try to claim flyweight gold when he takes on incumbent champ Beno Adamia (12-8-2). Cage Warriors Bantamweight Champion Liam Gittins (13-4) and Alessandro Giordano (9-3) will meet for the second time after their first bout earlier this year ended in a no contest.
I’m not interested in Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and won’t watch it (thank god this isn’t a boxing newsletter, or else I’d have to). But former UFC Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm will make her first boxing appearance in over 12 years lower on the card against Yolanda Vega, and that’s worth shouting out here at least.
UFC
A prelim fight between Christopher Ewert (7-0) and Jackson McVey (6-0) was dropped from today’s UFC card due to weight cut issues on Ewert’s side. It was announced that Ewert has been cut from the promotion - which maybe seems a bit harsh considering he took this fight on just a few days notice. He was scheduled to appear on the “Contender Series” this summer, but was pulled from the card to debut on the UFC roster today. Now, he won’t get either of those opportunities, it seems.
UFC 318 is up to a whopping 15 fights… For now. The latest addition is a heavyweight clash between Ryan Spann (22-11) and Lukasz Brzeski (9-6-1), per Matt Erickson and Nolan King of MMA Junkie. Brzeski has been highly unsuccessful in the UFC, having won just one of his six fights. 14-fight UFC vet Spann is trying to get out of some recent misfortune, losing four of his past five. He dropped his heavyweight debut earlier this year to Waldo Cortes-Acosta, who finished him in the second round.
Highly experienced UFC bantamweight Davey Grant (14-7) will take on Da’Mon Blackshear (17-7-1) at the promotion’s July 26th card, per Nolan King of MMA Junkie. Blackshear is looking for his third win of 2025 already, coming back after beating Cody Gibson and Alatengheili within just a few weeks of each other. Grant last appeared back in December when he overcame Ramon Taveras on scorecards.
Aljamain Sterling (24-5) will try to bounce back from his first featherweight loss when he takes on Brian Ortega (16-4) at UFC Shanghai on August 23rd. Former bantamweight champ Sterling suffered a setback in late 2024 when undefeated contender Movsar Evloev beat him on scorecards. He will now try to beat the always-tough Ortega, who is trying to rebound following a defeat to Diego Lopes, who went on to challenge for the featherweight title following that win.
Here’s an interesting one: A fight between two UFC talents will headline the promotion’s “Road To UFC” event on August 22nd in Shanghai. To my knowledge, this hasn’t been done before. Anyway: Shi Ming (17-5), the 2024 “Road To UFC” strawweight winner who earned a contract with a viral third-round head kick win over Feng Xiaocan, will take on Bruna Brasil (10-5-1). Ming got a lot of attention for her violent win last year, and for claiming that her parents don’t know about her second life as a fighter and only think she’s a doctor. Brasil is seemingly coming back down to strawweight for this fight after losing to Wang Cong earlier this year - UFC press release didn’t specify the weight class but that makes the most sense.
RIZIN
RIZIN’s flyweight grand prix has received two more last-minute additions: Jose Torres (13-4-1) and Takaki Soya (13-6-1). These were two of the bigger omissions from the initial lineup, so it’s good to see them added on. You might be thinking: “10 fighters in a bracket? How’s that work?” The opening round of the tournament will see the 10 fighters compete, leaving five remaining. After the opening round, a fan vote will decide which of the five winners will become a reserve, essentially taking them out of the bracket unless they’re needed due to another fighter getting injured or other complications. This is to say, not just winning but putting on a big performance might be key to staying alive in the bracket! I really like this idea.
A lottery draw of the first-round matchups will air on Tuesday morning.
Misc.
The Association of Boxing (ABC) will hold a vote at its annual meeting in August regarding potential changes to how MMA is scored. Among the numerous proposed changes is a bigger emphasis on “damage” when scoring a fight. It also would change what constitutes a 10-8 round. Aaron Bronsteter of Sportsnet put together a really good breakdown of what could be the future of MMA scoring - and what could be the sport’s first scoring change since 2017.
Over 97 percent of the 1,100 members in the Cung Le et al. v. Zuffa class action lawsuit put in a claim for their settlement money, per the Berger Montague law firm.
Quick media news: SiriusXM channel 156, “Fight Nation,” is rebranding on July 1st. The channel is cutting all MMA and boxing coverage and instead focusing solely on professional wrestling coverage, now being known as “Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7.” RJ Clifford, a host for the daily three-hour “MMA Today” program for 15 years, wrote a goodbye message on social media recently.