Johnny Eblen kicks Fabian Edwards during the Bellator Middleweight World Title fight at Kingdom Arena on 19 October 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Abdullah Ahmed / Getty Images) 
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is setting up shop in Africa with the PFL Africa, and it’s hosting the biggest Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event South Africa has seen thus far in its launch.
The PFL competes alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in terms of organisation size and calibre, with several of the worlds best MMA fighters taking to the Grand Arena at Grandwest, Cape Town, on Saturday, 19 July 2025, to compete.
It’s looking increasingly unlikely that UFC — in which South African middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis competes — will host an event in South Africa for the foreseeable future with operational costs, ticket prices and suitable venues an issue for the Dana White-run organisation.
So for South African MMA fans, Saturday’s event is the highest quality MMA event the country will see until PFL decides to return.
PFL Africa launches on Saturday — PFL’s third international league alongside PFL Europe and PFL Middle East and North Africa — beginning with first-round matchups in the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions. Each division will feature an eight-person bracket, with fighters advancing through semifinals and finals.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2157549509.jpg "Dakota Ditcheva kicks Chelsea Hackett during PFL 2024 week 4 at the Mohegan Sun Arena on 13 June 2024 in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Photo: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)")
The tournament will span four events across Africa and feature 24 fighters from 14 African countries. The next event is on 9 August in Johannesburg — at Top Arena, Carnival City — where the featherweight and welterweight divisions will compete.
South Africa’s Nkosi Ndebele’s (8-3) bantamweight bout against Egypt’s Mahmoud Atef (5-2) is one of a handful of mouthwatering PFL Africa clashes on Saturday.
Later on Saturday night the event will be headlined by five PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai bouts — PFL’s main fighting league. In the World Title main event, undefeated Middleweight World Champion Johnny Eblen (16-0) meets Spain’s Costello van Steenis (16-3). In the co-main event, undefeated 2024 PFL world champion Dakota Ditcheva (14-0) takes on Hawaii’s Sumiko Inaba (8-1).
Headliners
In the process of PFL’s ongoing expansion, it also acquired another MMA organisation, Bellator MMA, in 2023.
In doing so, it signed several of their stars including Saturday’s star attraction Eblen.
“Being part of the global expansion for the PFL is really fun,” Eblen said at the media day on Wednesday. “Me and my wife get to travel the world.
“It’s fun to see the world, see different cultures and see fighting spread. At the end of the day it’s what we want to do, and the PFL has been a big staple for that, and I’m happy to be a part of it.
“What’s attractive about it is that they can bring in new guys for me to fight.
“[PFL] is really good at raising money and getting things going. I’m fighting in Africa now, I fought in Saudi Arabia twice, before that I was mainly fighting in the States, which was fun but I also like travelling.”
It’s Eblen’s first time in South Africa. The middleweight star has spent two weeks in the country to acclimatise and get over the time difference. But in the time he’s been in the Mother City, he’s also had his phone stolen.
“We were in an Uber, my window was down in the city centre in a bad area and someone snatched my phone,” he said, although admitting that it was down to his own negligence.
“But that would happen anywhere, that would happen in the US in a bad area.”
His opponent on Saturday night, Van Steenis, was adamant that he would break Eblen’s unbeaten run, claiming he would end the bout in the second round. Eblen’s response was short and to the point: “No, he’s not.”
Although the 33-year-old did outline that Van Steenis is a top athlete, he’s confident he’ll retain his middleweight crown against the Spaniard.
“He’s an aggressive, athletic guy, he goes for the finish, but that’s really it,” Eblen said. “Every guy I’ve fought has that ability. He’s nothing different to what I’ve seen from any other opponent. Just a different guy on a different day. I’ve got better.”
The co-main event sees Ditcheva, who, like Eblen, is undefeated and will look to remain that way, take on the fleet-footed Inaba, who only has one defeat to her name. DM