Yesterday, the PFL announced their new residency in Orlando, Florida which will begin with the opening round of their first ever World Tournament. All four of the opening round cards will take place at Stage 19 at Universal Studios.
In addition to announcing this new residency, the promotion announced the eight welterweights and the eight featherweight fighters who will be competing in the first ever World Tournament. The welterweights and featherweights will begin things on the first card of the year for the promotion which will go down on April 3rd.
PFL Featherweights
The full list of featherweights can be viewed below.
- Jesus Pinedo (23-6-1)
- Jeremy Kennedy (19-5)
- Gabriel Braga (15-2)
- Movlid Khaybulaev (21-0-1)
- Nathan Kelly (11-3)
- Yves Landu (21-9)
- Tae Kyun Kim (10-1)
- Adam Borics (19-2)
With the list being announced, there are a couple of things that standout. The biggest standout in terms of the names that will be competing is 2023 PFL champ Jesus Pinedo. We haven’t seen Pinedo fight since he won the 2023 season championship so it’ll be exciting to see him back in action.
Two guys who are notable in terms of not competing in the World Tournament are Brendan Loughnane (30-6) and 2024 PFL champ Timur Khizriev (18-0). Much like with welterweight, the defending season champion is not part of the World Tournament which makes me wonder if there is a world title in store for the 2024 champion. With Loughnane, I’m not surprised he’s skipping the tournament after stating that there was burnout after competing in several seasons in a row.