Hollywood, FL — Middleweight Dalton Rosta started 2025 on the outside looking in. Now, he finds himself in the PFL World Tournament final in Hollywood, Florida this Thursday.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be in the damn thing, and I made a big stink with my manager,” Rosta (11-1) told Cageside Press and other media outlets during the PFL Hollywood media day this week. “I’m like, ‘who the hell are the eight guys that they’re putting in front of me?’ I was ranked fourth in Bellator, only have one loss, got a win back before they set the tournament up, and it was against an undefeated prospect [Norbert Novenyi Jr.].”
“Caused a little bit of a stink, and they ended up putting me in it. And good thing they did, because look at the finals now, look who’s here. The other six guys are at home watching.”
Rosta never had a chance to compete in a grand prix in his old home in Bellator, but has matured into an obvious threat over the years. Still, more than anything it seems he just likes the active tournament schedule.
“I prefer the tournament layout just because I know when I’m fighting, and it’s keeping me active. I prefer activity. I didn’t like sitting on the sidelines for ten months at a time when I was with Bellator.” Coming from a wrestling background, Rosta is used to competing in two-day events, wrestling multiple times in a day. “I think this is beneficial for me.”
Rosta’s physique almost never goes unnoticed; he carried the nickname “Hercules” for a reason. The secret to being jacked and still having great cardio? Rosta let that slip, boiling it down to one word: mindset.
“Mindset. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if it’s ten rounds. I’m going to go out there and put a clinic on this guy for five rounds straight. If it was ten, I would do the same.”
Asked who from the sports world he looked up to in terms of a winning mindset, Rosta picked a fellow mixed martial artist.
“Honestly I think the person with the strongest mindset probably is Khabib Nurmagomedov. A lot of the things he’s done in the sport have been inspirational,” he stated. “A lot of guys like to cite the Michael Jordans and the Tom Bradys and stuff like that, but really those are sports. Fighting’s not a sport. In here, in the cage, it’s do or die. You come out with your shield or on it. I think it’s definitely better to model after someone like Khabib Nurmagomedov.”
Watch the full PFL Hollywood media day appearance by Dalton Rosta above.
