Main event announced for PFL World Tournament in Nashville
MMA returns to Nashville this summer as PFL hosts its World Tournament semifinals on June 12 at Municipal Auditorium.
Headlining this summer's card is former Bellator world champion Jason Jackson (18-5) taking on the unbeaten Thad Jean (9-0) in a welterweight semifinal, PFL confirmed on Wednesday.
Jackson, who was formerly featured on The Ultimate Fighter, won the Bellator welterweight world championship in 2023 and joined the PFL Welterweight World Tournament earlier this year, picking up a second-round technical submission win over Andrey Koreshkov on April 3.
Jean also picked up a victory on the same card, knocking out Mukhamed Berkhamov in the first round.
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The co-main event will see a rubber match between Peru's Jesus Pinedo (24-6), the 2023 PFL featherweight champion, and Gabriel Braga (16-2) in a featherweight semifinal.
Pinedo made his PFL debut against Braga in 2023, suffering a split decision loss, before rematching him later that year in the PFL Featherweight Championship and scoring a third-round stoppage to win the belt.
The remainder of the card sees former Bellator champion Logan Storley (17-3) in a welterweight semifinal bout against Masayuki Kikuiri (11-2-1) of Japan, as well as unbeaten 2021 PFL Featherweight Champion Movlid Khaybulaev (22-0-1) returning to face Taekyun Kim (11-1).
Tickets for the 2025 PFL World Tournament 5: Semifinals in Nashville begin at $35 are available through Ticketmaster. The PFL World Tournament will stream live on ESPN platforms in the United States.
This summer's fight card comes after Nashville previously hosted PFL 7 last August, with the success of the event leading the organization to return to Music City.
The PFL World Tournament is an annual single-elimination tournament held across seven weight classes: heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight.
The tournament spans over five months with fighters looking to win three straight fights to become PFL Tournament Champion. Each winner will receive a $500,000 bonus while a total of $20 million will be paid out during the tournament.
Ahead of Nashville's semifinals, PFL will host three first-round events at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Harrison Campbell covers combat sports for The Tennessean and high school sports for The Daily Herald. Email him at hcampbell@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @hccamp.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: PFL World Tournament main event announced for Nashville fight card
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