This past weekend was a major weekend for combat sports. Kicking things off in Charlotte was the PFL with the conclusion of three of their world tournaments. The first of the three tournament championship fights was in the bantamweight division as Marcirley Alves (15-4) took on Justin Wetzell (12-3).
Both of these men had improbable runs to the tournament championship. Neither one of them were in the tournament originally and they both were alternates. However, they both found themselves in the tournament and took full advantage.
On Friday night, Alves really pulled out in front through the first three rounds with his striking. He was shrugging off takedown attempts from Wetzell and it felt like Wetzell was just stuck in the mud in terms of his striking.
However, the tide started to shift in the fourth round. You could see that Alves was slowing down and Wetzell started having success with his wrestling. He really poured it on in the fifth round, but Alves was able to survive.
In the end, Alves had done enough in the first three rounds to win the decision and become the PFL Bantamweight World Tournament champion.
What’s next for the PFL tournament champion?
Right now, there’s a lot up in the air with the bantamweight division. Patchy Mix was the Bellator bantamweight champion and the promotion had hoped to keep Mix and make him the face of the division. However, the two parties agreed to part ways earlier this year which led to Mix signing with the UFC.
With that, there’s still never been an official PFL bantamweight champion, but that will ultimately change. During the broadcast, the promotion announced the full main card of their Road to Dubai event on October 3rd. Opening up the main card is a matchup between Magomed Magomedov and Sergio Pettis.
Pettis is coming off an impressive win against Raufeon Stots which he thought would earn him a PFL bantamweight title fight. Magomed Magomedov was supposed to be in the world tournament but had to pull out of his opening round matchup. He did fight on the June card winning a decision over Sarvarjon Khamidov.
If you ask me, I think whoever wins between Magomedov and Pettis will fight Alves in early 2026 for the inaugural bantamweight championship.
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