Marcirley Alves was little more than a blip on the radar when the Professional Fighters League season set sail in April. Much has changed in the months since.
The surging 26-year-old Brazilian will square off with Justin Wetzell when their bantamweight final buoys PFL 2025 World Tournament 9 this Friday at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, Alves seeks to complete an unlikely march to the promised land that began with his entry into the tournament as a short-notice substitution. “I was going to be in the first or second bout of the undercard, as a backup,” he told Sherdog.