2023 PFL European championship finalist Simeon Powell will make his Bellator debut against Rafael Xavier.
The Light Heavyweight contest will take place on Saturday September 14, as the promotion head back to London for a Champions Series card.
The contest will be Powell’s first since suffering his first professional loss at PFL Europe 4 back in December 2023.
After signing with the PFL in 2022 on the back of PFL Challenger Series, Powell quickly showed his worth with a highlight reel knockout in his promotional debut against Clinton Williams.
His second win inside the Smart Cage just four months later, against João Paulo Fagundes, showed the promotional the potential start power of ‘Smooth’ and he entered the inaugural PFL European Championships, in 2023.
In the regular season bout, Powell faced the slick striking Mohamed Amine and submitted the Dutchman in the second round. In the semi-finals, ‘Smooth’ was initially to face Abdellah Er-Ramy but Er-Ramy was pulled from the bout during fight week and Daniel Ladero filled the spot. Powell got some valuable cage time and earned a unanimous decision win.
This then all set up the final against the, then unbeaten, Jakob Nedoh. Both men had shown their power throughout the tournament but it was Nedoh who landed flush in the second round and stop Powell with a flurry of punches.
The Bellator Champions Series bout will see Powell perform in front of a London crowd for the first time since 2022.
Xavier appears to be in the purple patch of his career, losing only one of his last seven bouts, by way a razor close split decision.
Four the last four years, the German has competed under the OKTAGON banner. He arrived at the promotion and instantly made a statement, finishing Michal Plesnik three minutes into their bout at OKTAGON 16.
It was much of the same when he returned to action at OKTAGON 23 when he dispatched of Csaba Hocz in 73 seconds, to continue his perfect promotional run.
Two more wins against Jose Daniel Toledo Canellas and Marcin Lazarz, over the space of the next 10 months, then led to a showdown against Pavol Langer. The bout was extremely close, with Lazarz taking the result on two of the three judges scorecards and he handed Xavier his first loss since 2019.
The German bounced back from the small setback and has since started another win streak, with victories against Mateusz Strzelczyk and Dan Vinni.
