After shocking the world and winning the PFL Lightweight World Tournament, what’s next for Alfie Davis?

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. In the main event, we saw the conclusion of the lightweight tournament as last year’s lightweight champ Gadzhi Rabadanov (26-5-2) took on Alfie Davis (20-5-1).

If we are being honest, Alfie Davis was a bit of an afterthought when the tournament was announced earlier this year. He was paired with promotional star Clay Collard and nobody really thought he’d win that. He ended up knocking him out to pull the upset.

Davis then took on former Bellator champ Brent Primus in the semifinals and again, most thought he’d lost to Primus. He won a unanimous decision which led him to the PFL Lightweight World Tournament finals. Nobody under the sun thought that he’d beat Rabadanov who had been perfect inside the SmartCage.

Well, it turns out that Davis was in the mood to prove everyone wrong again. When these two were striking, Davis completely frustrated Rabadanov with his lateral movement and his volume. He was just a step ahead of Rabadanov and made him miss throughout.

Rabadanov had tremendous success with his wrestling in rounds two and four where he dominated by taking Davis down and controlling him. The matchup was 2-2 on all cards entering the fifth round.

For some reason, Rabadanov decided to strike for the majority of the round and that cost him the fight. Davis did his thing and won the final round which earned him the PFL Lightweight World Tournament championship.

What’s next for the PFL tournament champ?

After this improbable win, the next thing for Davis is to find himself on a flight to Dubai in October. In October, Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes will rematch for the PFL lightweight title. As it stands, Davis will be next in line for the winner of that fight.

The only way I see Davis not getting the next title shot is if the second fight between those two is razor close with Hughes winning. In that scenario, you could make the argument for the immediate trilogy. However, if it’s decisive or if Usman Nurmagomedov gets his hand raised again, Alfie Davis will be next to challenge for the PFL title.

He’s been a big underdog over and over which will not change in the next one. Whether it’s Paul Hughes or Usman Nurmagomedov, either of those two are going to be astronomical favorites and Davis is going to have to shock the world again.