The B-League: PFL 10, aka World Tournament Finals (2025)

The end is here. Or at least until next year.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21
SEMINOLE HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO, HOLLYWOOD, FL, USA
MAIN CARD: 9 PM (Eastern)
BROADCAST: ESPN/ESPN+

MAIN EVENT: MIDDLEWEIGHT FINAL - Fabian Edwards (15-4) vs Dalton Rosa (11-1)

Edwards knocked out Impa Kasanganay in the opening bout of the tournament, then took a unanimous decision over Josh Silveira. Prior to the 2025 tournament, he’s really only ever lost to Johnny Eblen in the past four years. Like older brother Leon Edwards, Fabian has the wretched stench of point fighter on him.

Rosta submitted Sadibou Sy in the opener of the tourney, and then avenged his lone loss with a split decision over Aaron Jeffery. He’s also not much of a finisher, and of his four lifetime TKO wins, one is by injury, and another by doctor stoppage.

Edwards also beat Aaron Jeffery, by unanimous decision, back in 2024. Is that enough of a reason to give him the nod? I’ve certainly used less stringent methods to determine a winner, so sure, Edwards takes a decision win.

CO-MAIN EVENT: HEAVYWEIGHT FINAL - Oleg Popov (21-2) vs Alexandr Romanov (19-3)

Jesus Christ, Donn Davis. You put the Heavyweight Tournament Final on the prelims? Below Alexei Pergande? Why not just kick the winner in the nuts and fire him on the spot while you’re at it? Turns out they moved it from the prelims to the main card after someone caught wind of my draft. Go figure.

Anyway, Oleg took a split decision over Karl Williams, then unanimously won against Rodrigo Nascimento. Other than his loss to Denis Goltsov in last year’s finals, Oleg had been on a tear, winning 17 in a row. Just, you know, don’t look too closely at some of those names or their records.

How did Alexandr Romanov get here? Well, he choked out Big Tim Johnson inside of two minutes of the first round of the tournament. That he certainly did, look it up and watch it yourself. The second round of the tournament? Ok, well, look. I think we can all agree that MMA as a whole is kind of dumb. Unfortunately, a lot of dumb was compounded. Heavyweight MMA - dumb as hell. B-League MMA - stupid as all get out.

The constraints of a tournament in MMA - dumb levels critical. So, what happened when all that dumb slammed into itself? Alexandr Romanov accidentally kneed Valentin Moldavsky in the groin so hard that Moldavsky could not continue. The fight was all of four minutes old, but PFL needed someone to advance. The judges determined that Romanov won enough of the preceding 260 seconds, allowing him to advance to the finals. Oleg bout to Popov in this piece.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT FINAL - Antonio Carlos Junior (18-6) vs. Sullivan Cauley (8-1)

Shoeface got a split decision over Karl Moore, then a unanimous one against Simeon Powell.

Sullivan knocked out Alex Polizzi in the first round, then won a decision over Phil Davis.

I want you to ignore the simple fact that Alex Polizzi beat Antonio Carlos Junior last year, especially as it relates to my pick for the Middleweight finals. Shoe Face wins by submission because I’m mentally unwell.

FEATHERWEIGHT - Alexei Pergande (6-0) vs Ethan Goss (12-7)

Pergande is 6-0, all six fights coming inside of the PFL SmartCage. He’s got two submission wins and the rest by decision.

Goss is 12-7. Do I need to go any further?

How to tell if you are Pergande? You’re getting a layup squash match on the main card of the last PFL tournament event of 2025.

BANTAMWEIGHT - Bryce Meredith (7-0) vs Lazaro Dayron (8-0-1)

Meredith is an undefeated former wrestler hailing from Big Sky country, now training out of Arizona. He’s currently the least problematic guy named Bryce competing in international level MMA.

Dayron is also undefeated, and were it not for a third round point deduction due to a fence grab, he would have taken a decision victory over Danny Sabatello. As wretchedly loathsome as I find Sabatello, he’s still a solid fighter.

Meredith doesn’t have anything approaching Sabatello on his resume, so I’m taking Dayron to win this one.

Prelim Card

MIDDLEWEIGHT - Impa Kasanganay (18-6) vs Andrew Sanchez (14-8)

Impa’s last two years have been kind of rough. He won the 2023 PFL Light Heavyweight tournament, then just barely lost a contentious split decision against Johnny Eblen in the big Bellator versus PFL event last February. He made it to the 2024 tournament finals, but got knocked out by Dovlet Yagshimuradov. To reset and regroup, Impa entered the Middleweight tournament for 2025, but got knocked out by Fabian Edwards in April.

Andrew Sanchez hasn’t been super active, averaging about one fight per year, so that will hopefully soften the blow when I tell you he hasn’t won since 2023, and hasn’t recorded a finish since 2020. Last time out, Sadibou Sy knocked him out in the 2024 PFL regular season.

Andrew hasn’t fought at 185 since 2021, so I wonder how well his body will adjust to the weight cut. I’m taking Impa Kasangany to win by TKO.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT - Rasul Magomedov (7-0) vs Guillherme Viana (9-3)

Magomedov has two wins over someone with a halfway decent record. One of those guys has one win over someone who had a win on their record at the time of the fight. Really sifting through the dregs here.

Viana lost to Shoe Face on TUF Brasil 3 (JESU CRISTO) by knockout, somehow. He also had a stretch from 2016 - 2024 where he didn’t record a fight.

Viana is 9 years older, with about 6 inches of height on Magomedov. He is going to get absolutely trounced by Rasul.

HEAVYWEIGHT - Sergey Bilostenniy (13-4) vs Karl Williams (10-3)

Sergey lost to Valentin Moldavsky back in May. Prior to that, he had a three fight win streak, only interrupted due to getting disqualified for hitting Tyrell Fortune in the back of the head (Yes, this is an illegal act and yes, it is punishable per referee’s discretion). He’s got most of his wins by finish, most of his finishes by TKO. He did somehow secure a heel hook victory over Tyrell Fortune in a rematch last year.

Karl Williams is on a two-fight skid. He was let go from UFC after dropping a decision against Jhonata Diniz, then followed that up with a split decision against Oleg Popov. Of his 10 victories, seven are by decision, and his last finish came in 2022, one fight before his Dana White’s Contender Series appearance.

I think Sergey’s fought and beat better competition (Sorry, Chase Sherman). Bilostenniy by KO in the third, when both men are exhausted and just sort of flailing awkwardly at each other.

MIDDLEWEIGHT - Josh Silveira (14-5) vs Murad Ramazanov (12-3)

Josh “Also Ran” Silveira lost in the 2022 PFL playoffs, the 2023 PFL finals, the 2024 PFL playoffs, and in the semi-finals of the 2025 tournament. Somehow, the son of one of American Top Team’s biggest coaches is a PFL mainstay.

Ramazanov is on a three fight losing skid. He was 11-0, then faced Roberto Soldic in ONE. That fight was declared a No Contest due to an accidental groin strike after the big hype job for Soldic, making it very funny. Since then, Murad beat Laureano Staropoli, lost two in a row to Shamil Musaev inside 60 days. Then he lost to Aaron Jeffery by split decision in April.

Not feeling too confident about either man, to be honest. Nepo baby Silveira or Sad Dag Man? I’ll go with Josh, but I’m not happy about it.

CATCHWEIGHT (175 lbs) - J.P. Saint Louis (11-5) vs Tyler Ray (11-5)

I wonder if J.P. Saint Louis is related to Kendly St. Louis from last week’s PFL card. Or to the city.

J.P. is 11-5 overall, with a four fight win streak, though the first two guys on that run were 0-5 and 14-11, respectively.

Tyler Ray is 11-5 as well, with only a one fight win streak coming into this contest. Prior to that “get right” fight against Carlton Little, he was on a three fight losing skid.

Wait, I didn’t read the Tapology pages far down enough. This is a dang rematch from 2017 that saw Saint Louis submit Ray with a first round guillotine. Interesting wrinkle, Donn Davis, you wily scoundrel! I’ll take Saint Louis to go up 2-0 on Ray with another submission win.