AJ Mackey will return to the featherweight division as the PFL makes his Africa debut.
The league announced on Friday that former Bellator champion Mackie (22-2) will face Ahmed Magomedov (11-1) at an event on July 19 in a 145-pound match in the PFL Champion Series portion of Cape Town, South Africa.
See the PFL announcement below.
Mackie will compete for the first time in 2025 and will be competing as featherweight for the first time since 2022. The 30-year-old won his first title at Bellator 263 in a stunning first round submission for Patricio Pitbull, but returned the belt to Pitbull and was soon defeated again. Mackey then moved to lightweight, going 4-0 after losing a tight split decision to Paul Hughes this October.
Standing on the other side of Mackie is Russia’s Magomedov, who successfully submitted Nathan Kelly in January after going 1-1 under the Bellator banner.
Anderson (18-6, 1 North Carolina) has not fought since March 2024. On his recent outing, Anderson claimed the free Bellator light heavyweight title, beating Carl Moore. His rule was short as Bellator was purchased later that year and absorbed by the PFL.
His move to heavyweight is not surprising as he booked a fight in that division against longtime rival Vadim Nemkov for the PFL event in January, but Nemkov refused a match that the league insists he did not want to renegotiate his contract.
Goltsov (36-8) is about to add Anderson to his recent hit after he finally won the PFL tournament title in 2024, the end of a five-year pursuit of Russia’s heavyweight.
PFL Africa has headlined by Johnny Eblen defending the middleweight title against Costello van Stinis, but 2024 flyweight champion Dakota Ditcheva will face Smiko Inaba in the co-main event.