The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has finalised the lineup for the upcoming PFL Cape Town event, marking the debut of MMA in Africa with the continent’s first-ever global MMA event.
Set for Saturday 19 July at GrandWest’s Grand Arena, the landmark event marks a groundbreaking moment in PFL’s global expansion.
The event will feature the launch of the 2025 PFL Africa Tournament with first-round match-ups in the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions, each featuring an eight-man bracket.
In addition to the tournament bouts, the evening will be headlined by five high-stakes PFL Champions Series’ fights featuring elite global talent.
At 145-pounds, former Bellator featherweight world champion AJ “Mercenary” McKee returns to the SmartCage against Akhmed Magomedov, a rising Russian star and protégé of the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Also confirmed is a heavyweight showcase featuring current light heavyweight world champion Corey Anderson moving up a division to face 2024 PFL heavyweight champion Denis Goltsov.
Artur Zaynukov returns to the PFL following an impressive showing at Battle of the Giants, aiming to extend his winning streak to six.
He will meet RIZIN veteran Takeshi Izumi of Japan, a decorated wrestler who earned a unanimous-decision win over Spike Carlyle in his most recent outing.
These marquee match-ups round-off an already stacked PFL Champions Series card, showcasing some of the world’s top MMA talent on African soil.
Headlining the evening is undefeated middleweight world champion Johnny “Pressure” Eblen, who puts his perfect record and title on the line against Spain’s surging contender Costello “The Spaniard” van Steenis.
In the co-main event women’s flyweight phenomenon “Dangerous” Dakota Ditcheva, widely considered one of the top pound-for-pound woman fighters in MMA, faces Hawaii’s elite striker Sumiko “Lady Samurai” Inaba in a thrilling penultimate bout.
• The PFL Cape Town event begins at 16:30 with the PFL Africa portion of the card, followed by PFL Champions Series at 20:30. Tickets for this landmark event are on sale via Ticketpro.
