Professional Fighters League (PFL) recently unveiled the participants who will compete in the Featherweight and Welterweight divisions for its upcoming 2025 World Tournament beginning on Thurs., April 3, 2025, on the back lot of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Fla., airing live on ESPN and ESPN+ in the United States. Now, the promotion has given us a look at the women’s Flyweight roster.
Check it out:
Former Bellator MMA 125-pound champions Juliana Velasquez and Liz Carmouche lead the pack, which also includes former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contender, Taila Santos, who is 3-1 under the PFL banner, with her lone loss coming against Dakota Ditcheva.
Speaking of which, Ditcheva is suspiciously absent from the roster, with many expecting for the kickboxing specialist to make another run at winning her second straight tournament after dominating her way through the PFL 2024, improving her record to 14-0 while cashing in on the $1 million prize.
When broached about her participating, or lack thereof, in the 2025 field, Ditcheva didn’t offer up much of a reason.
In an interview with MMA Fighting earlier this year, Ditcheva was a bit unsure of her plans for 2025, saying that she needed to be challenged a bit more.
“Obviously, the merger with Bellator is perfect,” Ditcheva said “They definitely still have a talented group of flyweights for sure. So there’s definitely still going to be a few options that we can push our heads together and come up with. They are going to have to find [new talent]. I think again, being in a tournament, do people want to see me fight the same girls in the tournament again? Do they like the tournament format? I’m not sure.
“Would it be better of you to put me on a pay-per-view card and have me on a big fight and promote it like that? They promote me a lot during these tournaments. Could that work on a pay-per-view? I’m not sure. Maybe it could if you get me a big fight. If you put it in Manchester, put a few big names on it, things like that. There are so many options. PFL are quite good like that.”
The current finalized roster for the 2025 tournament includes:
Kana Watanabe – Japan
Jena Bishop – USA
Elora Dana – Brazil
Ilara Joanne – Brazil
Diana Asvaragova – Russia
Taila Santos – Brazil
Liz Carmouche – USA
Julianna Velasquez – USA
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This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
