Alfie

Britain’s Alfie Davis stunned defending champion Gadzhi Rabadanov to win the PFL lightweight tournament by unanimous decision in Charlotte, North Carolina.

London’s Davis landed the more damaging strikes to edge a close contest with all three judges scoring it 48-47 in the 33-year-old’s favour.

Davis was overcome with emotion as the result was read out as he won $500,000 (£369,000) – a prize he described as “life-changing”.

He becomes the third Briton to win an annual PFL tournament after featherweight Brendan Loughnane in 2022 and women’s flyweight Dakota Ditcheva last year.

“I don’t know what to say, I’ve worked so hard for this,” said Davis.

“To be a champion like Gadzhi, I respect him and have watched him for so many years – he and his team are amazing. To beat someone like that is a dream come true.”

Davis reached the final after enjoying the best spell of his 11-year career with wins over Clay Collard and Brent Primus.

In Russia’s 32-year-old Rabadanov, however, he was facing last year’s champion and a fighter on a 12-fight win streak.

Davis said he had suffered from a lack of confidence in the past, but has put that behind him with a string of impressive displays.

His new-found confidence was on full display as he danced his way to the cage, before being introduced as someone whose “charisma can be seen from space”.

Alfie Davis reflects on one fight in particular when he points out one of the most difficult moments of his career.

Fighting Alexander Shabliy in 2021, the Londoner admits he was “outclassed” as the Russian cruised to a unanimous decision win.

The 33-year-old says that while his preparations for the bout were hampered by a bacterial infection in his foot, the main reason for his defeat was psychological.

“I just didn’t pull the trigger and I think I choked under the pressure that he is this big star I felt I shouldn’t have been in there with,” Davis tells BBC Sport.

When a person doubts their ability and achievements it is sometimes described as impostor syndrome – a psychological experience where someone fears being exposed as not competent at their profession.

Confidence and bravado play such important parts in many fighters’ mindsets that it is uncommon for them to voice doubts about their standing in the sport.

Davis says throughout his career he has performed to his exciting potential in the gym, but has sometimes struggled to replicate it during fights.

This year however, things have changed. His career has reached new heights.

Having won two fights in 2025, Davis faces Russia’s Gadzhi Rabadanov in the PFL lightweight tournament final in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday – with the winner securing a $500,000 (£372,000) pay day.

Davis puts his change in fortunes down to two factors. The first is a swap of gym and coaches, which he says have allowed him to “express myself a bit more”.

The second is altering the way he thinks about competing. Davis appears calm and confident as he envisions the fight with 32-year-old Rabadanov.

“I think I used to put too much pressure on myself, but when I just go in there and go with the flow, not concentrating on the result too much, I get into my flow state. Before, I was overthinking,” he adds.

“I feel this guy I’m fighting now, if he was in the gym, I’d make easy work of him – I’ve just got to prove that under the big lights.”

Alfie Wise, who often appeared in films and TV shows with his friend Burt Reynolds, has died. He reportedly died July 22 of natural causes at the Thomas H. Corey VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., his longtime fiancée Stephanie Bliss told the Hollywood Reporter. He was 82.

Wise and Reynolds shared the screen in film and TV, including some of Reynolds’ greatest hits: the 1974 film “The Longest Yard,” the 1977 film “Smokey and the Bandit,” and the 1981 film “The Cannonball Run.” Wise also appeared with his friend in the CBS sitcom “Evening Shade” and ABC’s crime series “B.L Stryker.”

“His films were like an ongoing block party,” Wise told the New York Daily News after the death of Reynolds in 2018.

“You always knew you were going to have a great time with a Burt Reynolds movie,” he added.

Off screen, Wise worked as Reynolds’ assistant.

Wise graduated in 1964 from Penn State and joined the U.S. Navy, where he would produce and host shows. He later worked as an NBC page in Los Angeles. He made his acting debut in the 1972 TV movie “Call Her Mom.”

His filmography included “Midway” (1976), “Swashbuckler” (1976), and “Hot Stuff” (1979). Wise also appeared on the short-lived children’s show “Uncle Croc’s Block” with Lou Ferrigno and Charles Nelson Reilly in the titular role and the ABC series “The Fall Guy” with Lee Majors.

Wise’s last credit was 15 episodes of the CBBC show “S Club 7 in Miami.”
After retiring from acting in 2000, he worked as a real estate agent in Juniper, Fla.

Two-time defending wheelchair doubles champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid got their campaign off to a winning start at Wimbledon.

The British pair beat Takuya Miki of Japan and American Casey Ratzlaff 6-3 6-2 to progress to the semi-finals.

Six of their 22 major triumphs have come at the All England Club, while Hewett has 10 Grand Slam singles titles and Reid has two.

Both continue their singles campaigns on Thursday, with defending champion Hewett taking on China’s Ji Zhenxu and Reid facing Argentine fourth seed Gustavo Fernandez.

Another all-British pair – Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward – were also in last-eight action on Wednesday but they lost 7-5 6-4 to Ji and Israel’s Sergei Lysov.

In the women’s wheelchair doubles, Briton Lucy Shuker and her Dutch partner Diede de Groot advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-4 victory over all-Netherlands pair Lizzy de Greef and Aniek van Koot.

Another British-Dutch pairing, Cornelia Oosthuizen and Jinte Bos, could not join them in the last four as they were beaten 6-4 5-7 6-4 by Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana and Japan’s Saki Takamuro.

Greg Slade reached the semi-finals of the men’s quad wheelchair singles, defeating Chilean Francisco Cayulef 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-4, but 2019 finalist Andy Lapthorne was beaten 6-2 1-6 6-2 by Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan.

Both Slade and Lapthorne are back in action on Thursday in the men’s quad wheelchair doubles.

Lapthorne is partnering Cayulef against top seeds Guy Sasson and Niels Vink of Israel and the Netherlands respectively, while Slade and South African Donald Ramphadi face Kaplan and Dutchman Sam Schroder.