PFL World Tournament First Round Preview: Light Heavyweight

Tomorrow night, the PFL will host it’s final first round event for their world tournaments. In the final event, we will see the big boys go at it as the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions will be featured. In the main event, 2022 light heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson (19-3) will take on former Bellator champion Phil Davis (24-7).

Starting with Wilkinson, the former middleweight contender made the jump to light heavyweight in 2021 which led him to the PFL. He debuted in the 2022 season and ran through his competition on his way to becoming champion. In 2023, he started the season by beating Thiago Santos but popped for an illegal supplement which took him out of the season.

He came back in 2024 and made it to the playoffs before falling short to eventual champion Dovlet Yagshimuradov. He’ll look to bounce back from that loss and start out strong with a big statement win in the world tournament. To do that, he’ll have to defeat Phil Davis.

Mr. Wonderful was supposed to face Rob Wilkinson last year to begin the season. However, an injury took Davis out and he had to miss the entire season. This will be his first fight in nearly two years. The last time we saw Davis was against Corey Anderson where he lost a split decision. The former Bellator champion is 7-3 in his last ten fights with the losses coming against Anderson and twice against Vadim Nemkov.

The other featured light heavyweight matchup features former PFL champion Antonio Carlos Jr (16-6) as he takes on former Bellator title challenger Karl Moore (12-3). The full bracket of the light heavyweight tournament can be viewed below.