PFL’s global expansion is two months away from getting even bigger.
The promotion’s third regional brand, PFL Africa, is scheduled to debut on July 26th with a card from the GrandWest Arena in Cape Town, South Africa, the promotion announced Wednesday.
The series joins PFL’s regional Europe and MENA (Middle East & North Africa) tours, which have been launched over the past couple of years and run as a series a tier lower than the company’s main championship in the U.S.
PFL’s expansion into Africa—which they have hyped since they signed former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou back in 2023 and appointed him as a chairman for the region—is now just months away from beginning.
The promotion is pushing hard for their first event in the region, showcasing some championship-level talent while also kicking off tournaments featuring various fighters from around the continent.
The main event of the night will see undefeated Johnny Eblen take on Dutch veteran Costello van Steenis for PFL’s middleweight title.
Eblen was an unstoppable force in Bellator, claiming their 185-pound belt back in 2022 with a win over Gegard Mousasi before defending it twice in the following year. The American Top Team talent has picked up two wins since the promotion, as acquired by the PFL a year and a half ago, beating Impa Kasanganay in a three-round non-title fight, then getting past Fabian Edwards for the second time in his career last October.
While PFL retired the Bellator brand earlier this year, a press release issued by the promotion recognizes Eblen as the defending champ, meaning his reign was likely grandfathered into the promotion’s “Champions Series” title picture.
Van Steenis, who has fought under the Bellator banner since 2017, heads into the upcoming title fight with the momentum of back-to-back finish wins from last year, stopping French journeyman Gregory Babene with a Von Flue Choke, then putting away prospect Joao Vitor Dantas in just 48 seconds with a head kick.
Earlier on the card, 2024 PFL Flyweight Champion Dakota Ditcheva will return in a bout against flyweight prospect Sumiko Inaba.
Ditcheva tore through PFL’s flyweight roster last season, winning their 125-pound bracket after four consecutive finish wins. However, PFL hasn’t been quick to capitalize on her impressive 2024, leaving her without any fights for the first half of this year.
Ditcheva was vocal about her displeasure with the inactivity, telling MMA Junkie last month that the time away left her “gutted.”
Inaba has slowly put together an impressive record of eight wins and one loss since her 2020 Bellator debut. She most recently appeared back in September, snapping the undefeated record of Mackenzie Stiller with a second-round finish.
Earlier in the night, PFL Africa’s first-ever tournaments will kick off.
PFL Africa will follow a similar style to the Europe and MENA promotions, hosting single-elimination tournaments throughout the course of a year. In Africa, we now know that eight-man brackets will take place in the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions, beginning with the South Africa card in July. The upcoming card will be the first regional tournament at heavyweight that PFL has hosted.
Prospects from Cameroon, Senegal, South Africa, Morocco, Zimbabwe, and Egypt are already booked for tournament action. PFL says the remaining bouts for the bracket will be revealed soon.
PFL Africa is far from the end of the company’s expansion across the world, per founder Donn Davis. He said last weekend that the promotion hopes to launch tours in Australia and Latin America by 2026, then also start running shows in East Asia and India a year later. That would be a total of seven regional brands, assuming they would also continue with Europe, MENA and Africa.
Here’s a look at how the first-ever PFL Africa card looks thus far:
Bout 6: Johnny Eblen (16-0) vs. Costello van Steenis (16-3) (PFL Middleweight Championship)
Bout 5: Dakota Ditcheva (14-0) vs. Sumiko Inaba (8-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 4: Jashell Ticha Awa (3-1) vs. Justin Clarke (2-0) (Heavyweight Quarter-Final)
Bout 3: Abdoullah Kane (3-0) vs. Mohammad Ben Yahia (9-4) (Heavyweight Quarter-Final)
Bout 2: Nkosi Ndebele (8-3) vs. Mahmoud Atef (5-2) (Bantamweight Quarter-Final)
Bout 1: Simbarashe Hokonya (5-0) vs. Abderrahman Errachidy (4-1) (Bantamweight Quarter-Final)
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