Jason Jackson is one step closer to becoming champion again.
On Thursday night at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, PFL kicked off its 2025 tournament campaign with PFL1, featuring the opening round of the welterweight and featherweight tournaments. And in the main event, Jackson ran over Andrey Koreshkov, scoring a second-round technical submission to earn his spot in the welterweight semifinals.
After a competitive opening round between the two former Bellator welterweight champions, Jackson began to take over in the second round; however, things almost went awry when Jackson landed an illegal elbow to the back of Koreshkov’s head, opening a cut and causing referee Keith Peterson to stop the action. After Koreshkov took the full five minutes of recovery time, Peterson declined to take a point from Jackson, and the action resumed. Jackson pounced immediately, shooting a takedown and delivering brutal ground-and-pound until Koreshkov gave up his back. Jackson quickly locked in a rear-naked choke and squeezed until Koreshkov went to sleep.
In the co-main event, Jesus Pinedo made a successful return to the SmartCage, stopping Adam Borics in the first round. The 2023 PFL featherweight tournament winner, Pinedo, has not fought since beating Gabriel Braga to win that title but didn’t show any signs of ring rust on Thursday. Pinedo came out firing early and hurt Borics with a stinging right hand. Once he had Borics hurt, Pinedo didn’t let up, pouring on punches until he dropped Borics and got the stoppage. Now, Pinedo will face Braga, who also beat Fred Dupras earlier in the evening, in a trilogy bout in the featherweight tournament semifinals.
In the other main card welterweight bout of the evening, former interim Bellator champion Logan Storley cruised to the semifinals with a dominant decision over Joseph Luciano. Storley was originally supposed to face 2024 PFL runner-up Magomed Umalatov, but Umalatov missed weight and was replaced by Luciano, who had no answer for Storley’s wrestling attack.
Storley will face Masayuki Kikuiri, who beat Giannis Bachar earlier in the evening, in the semifinals.
In the opening main card bout, Movlid Khaybulaev narrowly edged out Jeremy Kennedy to sneak his way into the welterweight semifinals. Kennedy came out strong, repeatedly hurting Khaybulaev in the first round, but the 2021 PFL champion bounced back strong in the second and returned the favor, hurting Kennedy and controlling the round. The third was a back-and-forth affair with neither man clearly establishing themselves. In the end, the judges awarded Khaybulaev a split decision victory.
Khaybulaev will fight Ta Hyun Kim, who defeated Nathan Kelly in the opening bout of the evening, in his featherweight semifinal.
The prelims were full of exciting finishes as Thad Jean and Masayuki Kikuiri earned their spots in the welterweight semifinals, while Ta Hyun Kim and Gabriel Braga moved on to the featherweight semifinals. Jean, in particular impressed, scoring a nasty KO of Mukhamed Berkhamov, and will now face main event winner Jason Jackson in a semifinal bout.
Check out the full PFL 1 results below.
Jason Jackson def. Andrey Koreshkov via technical submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 2, 4:21
Jesus Pinedo def. Adam Borics via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 3:43
Logan Storley def. Joseph Luciano via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
Movlid Khaybulaev def. Jeremy Kennedy via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Thad Jean def. Mukhamed Berkhamov via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 4:25
Gabriel Braga def. Fred Dupras via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 4:37
Masayuki Kikuiri def. Giannis Bachar via TKO (retirement) — Round 2, 5:00
Tae Hyun Kim def. Nathan Kelly via technical submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 4:53
