Bantamweights, Women’s Flyweights Advance in Upset-Filled 2025 PFL 2 Card

By Martial Arts Videos April 11, 2025
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Just two events into the season, and most of the brackets have gone
up in smoke.

The opening round of Professional Fighters League’s global
tournament is already halfway over. Upsets were plentiful and
results were largely entertaining as the slim and sleek eight-fight

2025 PFL World Tournament 2 show wrapped in a bit under four
hours. The action-packed evening culminated in an unexpected
showdown at 135 pounds between Bellator MMA vet Leandro
Higo (23-7, 0-1 PFL) and extremely late replacement Marcirley
Alves (13-4, 1-0 PFL). Coming into this main attraction on a
day’s notice after Higo’s original opponent of Josh
Rettinghouse could not get cleared, Alves showed he was fully
prepared to rise to the occasion.

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Partway through the first round, the wide-swinging Alves knocked
Higo clean off his feet with a huge left hand, and he climbed into
top position and controlled the remainder of the opening frame.
Alves was keen on reintroducing his countryman to his looping
haymakers in the next period, catching Higo with his booming left
again and again. While Higo stormed back for part of the second
stanza, he appeared to be a step behind the younger man. Even if he
held his own on the feet, he could not buy a takedown to take the
fight into his world.

As the Brazilians entered the final round, Alves came out favoring
his right leg, which might have sustained some damage either
throwing or absorbing kicks. As a result, Alves switched to
orthodox, where his left hook did not have nearly as much mustard
on it. Higo came out strong, but it was not enough to get his hand
raised. Carrying on with the evening’s theme of upsets, two judges
awarded Alves scores of 29-28, overtaking Higo’s lone 29-28 in his
favor to take the nod by split decision.



Hoping that 2025 is the charm as she re-enters the flyweight
tourney, Liz
Carmouche (23-8, 3-1 PFL) stood toe-to-toe against a woman 11
years her junior in Ilara
Joanne (12-10, 1-2 PFL). Proving that age is nothing but a
number, the ex-Bellator champion ran roughshod over her Brazilian
counterpart. From the opening bell, Carmouche came out sharp as
ever, putting Joanne down with a nasty leg kick and then butchering
her to the body when Joanna recovered and put her back to the wall.

The brutal body shots broke “Arya Stark” down in a hurry, as she
slumped to her side and shelled up. A final salvo of Donkey
Kong-esque hammerfists from “Girl-Rilla” punctuated the one-sided
drubbing, forcing referee Josh Rutgers to step in just 85 seconds
into the clash.

The WMMA pioneer violently returned to the win column thanks to her
beatdown of Joanne, and she was all smiles as she punched her
ticket to the semifinals once more.

Francesco
Nuzzi (10-2, 1 NC; 1-1, 1 NC PFL) collided with Mando
Gutierrez (11-3, 1-0 PFL) in the penultimate bantamweight
quarterfinal pairing. In the first 65 seconds, Nuzzi practiced the
art of Dundasso perfectly by landing not one but two eye pokes that
only received warnings. Walking through strikes that busted him up
and produced a crimson mask, the ultra-aggressive Gutierrez surged
forward to tackle Nuzzi to the ground and wrap up a rear-naked
choke.
The Italian protected his neck on the first few efforts, but
Gutierrez was a man on a mission in securing the submission. As
soon as Nuzzi called it a day, the Mexican underdog released the
grip and shoved Nuzzi over, still a bit fired up from the fouls
earlier in the round.

The tap came at 4:13 of the first round, putting in the books yet
another upset and further transforming the landscape of the
bracket. In victory, “El Toro” sets himself up with a scintillating
semifinal scrap against another man not expected to get this
far.



Kasum
Kasumov (15-2, 0-1 PFL) squared off with Justin
Wetzell (11-2, 1-0 PFL) in a catchweight contest as Wetzell
missed weight by over two pounds, resulting in one of the more
shocking victors out of the entire tournament landscape. Very
little of their encounter took place in kickboxing range, as
Kasumov shot for a takedown early and continued to pursue it or
engage in a prolonged clinch battle. Wetzell’s best success came in
the form of hacking elbows to the side of the head, until he
managed to ground the Russian for some time. In the final frame,
Kasumov sold out for the takedown, and Wetzell stifled him with
elbows, hammerfists and a sneaky inverted triangle position he used
to nullify his opponent and land blows. The fighters reached the
final horn, with little doubt as to who would get their hand
raised.

Wetzell, a betting underdog as high as +750 on some books, ruined
Kasumov’s party by ejecting him from the tournament courtesy of two
30-27 tallies and one of 29-28 all in Wetzell’s favor.



Flyweight quarterfinal three of four contained a classic matchup of
Brazil vs. Ukraine, with former Bellator queen Juliana
Velasquez (13-4, 1-2 PFL) coming to blows with Ekaterina
Shakalova (9-2, 1-0 PFL). The less-experienced Shakalova was
quick to engage, charging fearlessly towards Velasquez and rending
her to the mat.
Shakalova pursued a rear-naked choke relentlessly, never letting go
of the grip. As she continued to adjust the submission, she finally
slid it under the chin, and the Brazilian surrendered at 2:05 of
the opening stanza. Easily notching the biggest win of
her career, the 27-year-old celebrated by chowing down on a
softball-sized cinnamon roll her corner just so happened to have
standing by.

Blowing up the expectation that it would be Carmouche vs. Velasquez
part four in the finals, Shakalova shocked the world with her upset
submission. Perhaps more remarkably, the Ukrainian is the first
woman not named Carmouche to beat the former pound-for-pound talent
Velasquez.



Kicking off the bantamweight portion of the tourney, Matheus
Mattos (14-4-1, 0-1) and Jake Hadley
(12-4, 1-0 PFL) threw down in a battle of PFL debutants. Both
well-rounded competitors, they proceed to alternate between speedy
exchanges of fisticuffs and wild grappling scrambles. As the ex-UFC
fighter’s confidence swelled in the second stanza, he dislodged
Mattos’ mouthguard with a combination and did serious work to the
body with a prolonged barrage of blows. With a full head of steam,
Hadley lifted Mattos up in Round 3 and deposited him gingerly the
canvas, while wrapping up a body triangle. In an unusual position
with Hadley on the side of his opponent, his legs fastened around
the waist, he allowed Mattos to flip him over so he could set a
very dangerous trap.


The Brazilian climbing into top position, Hadley left his legs
around the midsection and torqued his opponent an unnatural angle
to suddenly secure a modified twister out of the playbook of
Steven
Ray. By the time Mattos realized he was in danger, he
had to call it quits lest his spine begin to take the shape of a
pretzel. With style points, Hadley elicited the tap at 2:16 of the
last round, earning himself a place in the semifinals against the
victor of the main event.

The second bout on the fight card saw Kana
Watanabe (13-4-1, 1-2 PFL) try to improve her fortunes in the
PFL cage at the expense of Jena Bishop
(8-2, 2-2 PFL). Very keen on trying to pick up the first knockout
win of her career, Bishop came out of her corner like her hair was
on fire—despite taking on a woman with flaming red dyed hair. After
taking damage and figuring out her own range, Watanabe turned the
tables and put Bishop on her seat with a clean right hook, only for
Bishop to bloody her nose up with a surprise barrage of upkicks.
The second round saw more of the same, a back-and-forth striking
affair with defense at a premium. The grapplers continued to trade
leather, busting one another around and nearly dropping the other
multiple times as the scrap progressed. With a bit over a minute
remaining in the matchup, Bishop dragged the fight to the ground,
took the Japanese woman’s back and fastened a body triangle around
the waist. Bishop sought out several rear-naked chokes and a nasty
face crank, but Watanabe made it to the final bell.

After three fairly exciting rounds, judges issued scores of 30-27,
30-27 and 29-28 all in favor of the more active woman in Bishop.
Just like that, Bishop moves on to the semifinals, a plateau she
reached in the previous tournament, with a date in June against
Shakalova.

Just like last week, exactly eight matches took place during the
event, with all eight falling under the tournament umbrella without
a showcase or alternate in sight. The engagements began with a
flyweight tilt pitting Elora Dana
(8-0, 1-0 PFL) against Diana
Avsaragova (6-2, 0-1 PFL). The two women were fairly
well-matched on the feet, with the Russian pulling ahead early as
she dropped Dana in the midst of a wild exchange. Dana toughed it
out to will herself into a takedown attempt, where she dragged
Avsaragova to a knee and took her back. On a second effort, Dana
secured the takedown she was seeking, and passed to half guard on
the side while wrapping her arm around Avsaragova’s neck.

The unbeaten woman gripped her unorthodox neck crank with all of
her might, without the guillotine set or tight, and crank she did.
With 12 seconds left on the clock, Avsaragova had no choice but to
tap out.

Late replacement Dana became the first flyweight to advance in her
bracket, while also becoming the first woman in company history to
lock down a neck crank submission.

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