Last year’s welterweight runner up was set to be in action in the first round on April 3.
After kicking off 2025 with the incredible fight between Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes, the PFL is just one day away from really kicking their schedule for the year into gear.
The PFL is going to look significantly different throughout the year after making major changes to the way that the promotion books its roster and plans out events.
In place of the old season format where competitors had to earn points to advance to the knockout stages is a far simpler “PFL World Tournament” where each weight class has 8 fighters competing in a standard knockout bracket with the winner earning $500,000 at the end.
The very first stage of the 2025 World Tournament kicks off at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida tomorrow night but difficulties have already emerged at the weigh-ins.
Welterweight favorite Magomed Umalatov eliminated after missing weight
One of the biggest challenges in competing in the PFL’s season format in the past was fighters needing to regularly make weight and avoid injuries in order to keep up with the quick turnarounds.
However, before the opening round of matchups could even get underway, a fighter that many predicted would go all the way in his division has been eliminated from the bracket.
Russian fighters have been incredibly dominant in the PFL in recent years and in 2024’s welterweight final, two fellow undefeated countrymen collided.
Magomed Umalatov has been one of the top fighters in the promotion for some time but despite this, he has been unable to win a championship.
The 32-year-old moved to 17-1 after being stopped by Shamil Musaev in the finals last November after finally making it to the last stage of the tournament.
Musaev isn’t in the welterweight World Championship and though there are other top talents like the former Bellator champion Jason Jackson in the mix, Umalatov certainly would’ve been one of the favorites to make the final two if not to go all the way.
He was set to face the former interim Bellator champion Logan Storley on April 3 until he missed weight for the bout on April 2.
Though the news hasn’t been confirmed by the PFL at this time, several reports state that Umalatov will now be eliminated from the tournament with Storley facing one of the two alternates in Thad Jean or Joseph Luciano.
Pull-outs come with the territory of a tournament format
The PFL’s re-designed format for 2025 has kept tournaments as a key part of what the promotion does whilst streamlining the way that it works.
Whilst this helps to makes things easier to follow for the fans, there’s nothing that can be done about pull-outs whether they’re due to weight misses and injuries.
That’s simply part of the risk that you face when running a tournament but to have a major name like Magomed Umalatov out of the running before the first fight will be hugely disappointing for the promotion.
Tournaments being unpredictable is why they’re so fun to follow but in an instance like this, you’re reminded why so few of them are seen through from start to finish without any issues.
