PFL 2025: Welterweight and Featherweight Finals, Epic Fights in Sight!

PFL 2025: The Finals are Approaching

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is preparing to close its 2025 season with three high-caliber events in August, featuring the finals of its eight weight categories. The first event, which will kick off this exciting series, will be held this Friday in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The main card, scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, will be headlined by championship bouts in the welterweight and featherweight divisions. The preliminaries will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN+. The main event at Boardwalk Hall will pit undefeated welterweight Thad Jean against Logan Storley. The co-main event will feature former PFL featherweight season champions Movlid Khaybulaev (2021) and Jesus Pinedo (2023). This year, the PFL has implemented a single-elimination tournament format to reach the finals. The promotion’s previous six seasons also concluded with championship finals, but those title fights were the result of playoffs determined by a regular season ranking format. Having eight weight classes is also new for the PFL, after previous seasons operated in six divisions.

Key Details of the PFL 2025 Finals

Logan Storley competed twelve times in Bellator MMA, but never defeated a Bellator champion.

Welterweight: Thad Jean (10-0) vs. Logan Storley (18-3)

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PFL 2025: The Finals are Approaching Key Details of the PFL 2025 Finals Complete Friday Schedule

How Jean arrived: He defeated Mukhamed Berkhamov by TKO in the first round on April 3; he defeated Jason Jackson by split decision in a semifinal on June 12.How Storley got here: He defeated Joseph Luciano by unanimous decision on April 3; he defeated Masayuki Kikuiri by unanimous decision in a semi-final on June 12.

A key number: 1. That’s the number of Bellator champions that Jean and Storley have defeated in their careers, combined. Before joining the PFL, Storley fought 12 times in the Bellator octagon, but never beat a champion. That achievement belongs to Jean, who never competed in Bellator, but secured his place in the 2025 PFL finals by defeating Jackson, a former Bellator champion. Storley, however, had some significant wins in Bellator. He defeated Joaquin Buckley and Michael “Venom” Page, both now in the UFC. The 2022 victory over MVP earned Storley the interim welterweight championship.

If [Storley] really wants to fight, then yes, I’m going to take it from him. Not in the third round, the fourth, the fifth. No, in the first two rounds, it’s over. … I’m not the boring fighter. I’m the fighter you want to see. I’m the fighter you want to tune in and watch. I’m the fighter you want to see win or lose, it doesn’t matter, I want you to watch me. … In the great words of [Conor] McGregor, ‘We’re not here to participate; we’re here to take over.’ And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re going to take over everything. That’s why it’s so important for me to become champion, because I’m the next step.
Thad Jean

The reason I’ve had the career I’ve had is simply the courage, the consistency of doing difficult things over and over again. The ability to perform. I’ve had probably 800 hand-to-hand and wrestling matches since I was 5 years old, going through college and in MMA. I’ve competed a lot against the best in the world. And so, the nerves, what’s at stake, the NCAA [wrestling] tournament on ESPN, I’ve done it.
Logan Storley

Factor X: Teamwork. Jean’s most recent victory, and the biggest of his young career, was against Jackson, Storley’s teammate at the Kill Cliff FC gym in South Florida. Surely Storley, Jackson, and their coaches have put their heads together to figure out what went wrong and how Storley can avoid a similar result.

What to expect: If you can read Jean’s name printed on the back of his shorts, that’s bad news for Storley, because it means the fighters are standing and exchanging punches and kicks, not lying on the mat wrestling. This is a classic striker versus wrestler matchup. Storley was a four-time NCAA Division I All-American in wrestling at the University of Minnesota, finishing third at 174 pounds in the 2014 NCAA national championships. Jean, on the other hand, is a versatile and explosive striker whose fast kicks and long punches have kept him safe from takedowns. Can Storley close the distance without getting knocked out?

Jesus Pinedo affirms that he will not change his fight plan for the finals.

Peso Pluma: Movlid Khaybulaev (23-0-1, 1 NC) vs. Jesus Pinedo (25-6-1)

How Khaybulaev arrived: He defeated Jeremy Kennedy by split decision on April 3; he defeated Tae Kyun Kim by unanimous decision in a semifinal on June 12.

How Pinedo got here: Defeated Adam Borics by TKO in the first round on April 3; defeated Gabriel Braga by TKO in the first round in a semi-final on June 12.

A key number: 0. Whenever a fighter’s record ends in zero, such as in, no losses, that is always the key number, especially when said fighter has competed more than two dozen times as a professional. What is different with Khaybulaev is that he has tasted defeat in the PFL. In the 2019 quarterfinals, he was knocked out by Daniel Pineda, but the result was overturned to a no-contest after Pineda tested positive for a banned substance. Still, Khaybulaev has experienced being knocked out and Pinedo is a power hitter, with KOs in his last nine victories.

I’m a different type of fighter than what [Khaybulaev] has faced. Many guys, either out of fear of Movlid or out of too much respect for him, change their fighting style when they see him. I’m going to fight my own fight, and that will be something he’s never faced. … My game plan for every fight is to stay on my feet, defend takedowns and move forward and put pressure on the fight. … I came for the money, the belt, and to take away his zero.
Jesús Pinedo

If [Pinedo] wants to have a war, we will have it. That puts more fire in me. … If he thinks he saw people who had a good fight, something else awaits him. Our fight is on a different level. … The best thing about having [Khabib] Nurmagomedov in my corner is that he gives precise advice. He sees the whole picture. Sometimes the coaches shout different advice. He is always on target. He is very precise. If you listen to him and execute well, that gives you an advantage.
Movlid Khaybulaev

Factor X: Inactivity. Both fighters were inactive throughout 2024. Khaybulaev’s absence extended to almost two years, as he stepped away in June 2023 and didn’t return until last April. He has never fully explained the reason for his break from the sport. Pinedo, on the other hand, spent much of 2024 recovering from a back injury, and his scheduled return in November was canceled after Pinedo failed to make weight. Both fighters rebounded with a couple of wins in the 2025 tournament, and Pinedo’s two KOs were impressive.

What to expect: Pinedo has a 9-1 record in his last 10 fights, with six of his nine knockouts in the first round. In his only fight that went the distance, Pinedo lost a split decision. He hasn’t won a decision since 2018. Khaybulaev, on the other hand, has built his career by impressing the cage judges. Of his 23 victories, 14 were by decision, all but three of them unanimous. He has more decision victories than knockouts (6) and submissions (3) combined. So what to watch for is Round 2 and beyond, something Pinedo hasn’t experienced since 2023. Considering that the PFL schedules its finals for five rounds, Pinedo could be taken where he has never been before. Khaybulaev has only fought five rounds once, but his game is built for long trips.