A PFL vs. ONE super card was close to coming to fruition.
The PFL is about to wrap up its first season under its ‘World Tournament’ format, featuring $500k prizes to the tournament’s winners. Welterweight Thad Jean earned an impressive win over Logan Storley last weekend to win the PFL Welterweight World Tournament and now eyes several high-profile fights.
It’s been another big year for the PFL, despite its biggest star Francis Ngannou not competing so far in 2025. Ngannou is eyeing another fight in boxing before entertaining another appearance in the PFL SmartCage.
After the PFL purchased Bellator, the two promotions squared off in an unprecedented event in 2024, with current and former champions fighting each other on a cross-promotion card. According to one of the PFL’s head executives, the league offered to make a similar event with ONE, but the latter promotion wasn’t interested.
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Donn Davis takes aim at ONE over alleged PFL super card snub
In a recent post to X, PFL co-founder Donn Davis responded to a hypothetical PFL vs. ONE super card that made the rounds online.
“Interesting, Guess What…we offered!” Davis proclaimed.
“[PFL] offered [ONE Championship] to co-stage “Champs v Champs” Super Event. Chatri turned it down, he said no.
“Obviously, it is because [PFL] would win almost all the fights. 8 weight classes – PFL wins 7 to 1.”
As of this writing, ONE hasn’t responded to Davis’s claims. The promotion parted ways with one of its biggest stars, Reinier de Ridder, last year after a long contract dispute.
ONE is in a peculiar spot despite having several top names, including Stamp Fairtex and Anatoly Malykhin, on its roster. Demetrious Johnson and De Ridder’s departures hit the promotion hard, and ONE is still looking to blossom top-level talents.
A PFL vs. ONE super card would’ve featured intriguing matchups like Reug Reug vs. Francis Ngannou, and Fabricio de Andrade vs. Movlid Khaybulaev. Despite losing out on the ONE crossover event, PFL plans to settle a long-standing feud on one of its upcoming cards.
Artem Lobov vs. Zubaira Tukhugov set for PFL Champions Series showdown
Artem Lobov, Conor McGregor’s former longtime sparring partner and teammate, will reportedly return to MMA to face Zubaira Tukhugov later this year. Lobov and Tukhugov have played key roles in the longstanding feud between McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Lobov vs. Tukhugov was supposed to take place at UFC 223 before McGregor’s infamous bus incident thwarted the matchup. McGregor went on to lose to Nurmagomedov just months later at UFC 229.
This will be Lobov’s first MMA fight since 2018. Meanwhile, Tukhugov returns to the cage for the first time since a loss to Elves Brener at UFC 284.
Nurmagomedov also recently ‘leaked’ the PFL’s planned rematch between Paul Hughes and Usman Nurmagomedov for later this year. Hughes and Nurmagomedov fought in a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate earlier in 2025.