The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced an earlier date for its inaugural event on the African continent. Originally scheduled for July 26, the PFL Africa debut will now take place on July 19.
The event is set to be held at the GrandWest Arena in Cape Town, South Africa, and is comprised of two separate fight cards. One portion is a PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai show, which is headlined by reigning middleweight champion Johnny Eblen defending his title against Costello van Steenis. The co-main event for this card will feature undefeated flyweight contender Dakota Ditcheva taking on Sumiko Inaba.
The other part of the event, officially designated as PFL Africa 1, will mark the beginning of the league’s regional tournaments for African heavyweights and bantamweights. The scheduled lineup for the PFL Africa 1 tournament bouts includes:
- Nkosi Ndebele vs. Mahmoud Atef — Bantamweight
- Maxwell Djantou Nana vs. Mikael Groguhe — Heavyweight
- Shannon Van Tonder vs. Boule Godogo — Bantamweight
- Jashell Ticha Awa vs. Justin Clarke — Heavyweight
- Antero Dos Santos vs. Karim Henniene — Bantamweight
- Abdoullah Kane vs. Mohammed Ben Yahia — Heavyweight
- Simbarashe Hokonya vs. Alain Majorique — Bantamweight
- Badredinne Medkouri vs. TBD — Heavyweight
- Juliet Ukah vs. TBD
Notably, this change in schedule places the PFL event in direct competition with UFC 318. That upcoming UFC card is expected to be headlined by a trilogy bout between Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier, which Poirier has indicated may potentially be his final professional fight.
