PFL Bantamweight World Tournament Semifinal Preview

Tomorrow night the PFL World Tournament continues from Wichita, Kansas and there are six fighters who will punch their ticket to the finals as three weight classes will be featured. The bantamweight division will have it’s semifinal matchups with the featured match being against Marcirley Alves (13-4) and Jake Hadley (12-4).

Alves’ journey to his first round win was something. First and foremost, the massive tournament favorite was Magomed Magomedov (20-4) who was supposed to face Leandro Higo in the first round. Magomedov had to pull out and Higo got a replacement opponent. Higo’s replacement wasn’t cleared to fight and Avles went from an alternate matchup to meeting Higo in the first round. Alves pulled off the huge win scoring a split decision and now he’s in the world tournament semifinals.

He’ll be taking on Jake Hadley. The UFC vet signed with the PFL ahead of the 2025 World Tournament and he started in style with a third round submission in the first round of the tournament. Now, he’ll have his chance to get to the finals where he’d be able to fight for $500,000 and the tournament championship.

PFL World Tournament

In the other semifinal matchup, Justin Wetzell (11-2) will be taking on Mando Gutierrez (11-3). Starting with Wetzell, he made a name for himself in LFA where he won his last fight back in October in a main event. From there, he signed with the PFL for the world tournament and he won a decision in his opening matchup. Granted, he did miss weight for the fight. Originally, fighters who didn’t make weight wouldn’t advance, however, that wasn’t the case here.

Mando Gutierrez did make weight for his first fight and he scored a first round submission which was his third win in a row. Both of these men are hungry to make a statement and with so much on the line, I would expect some solid action from the bantamweights tomorrow night.