It was Bellator 298 inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where the pair first met two years ago. In their initial meeting, the gas tank of Aaron Jeffery carried him far and allowed him to impose his will for all fifteen minutes, earning an obvious unanimous decision win while handing Rosta his first loss as a professional fighter.

It was another full 15 minutes on Friday, where Jeffery came out and took the center of the cage, using his range to back up Rosta. The Canadian was looking to use the cage wall to clinch up a few times to wear on Rosta, but Rosta did a good job of keeping his back off the cage and escaping the clinch. He also landed a clean elbow on the exit midway through round one.

During the last two minutes, Jeffery clinched up once again, actively looking for the takedown while he also landed a few knees and short shots to the head and body.

When the bell rang in round two, both men came out quick and less than a minute in, Jeffery once again clinched up against the fence for a brief moment before Rosta freed himself. The striking of Dalton Rosta looked very sharp, and his explosive power proved very dangerous as he appeared to be landing the bigger and more damaging shots. The last minute or so of round two was pure pressure from Rosta as he then clinched up and held Jeffery against the cage, working to batter the body of Jeffery.

Earlier in the PFL Chicago Fight Week, Rosta had promised that he would not tire out later in the fight as he had in the pair’s original encounter. This stood very true as when the fight entered the third and final round, Rosta was presumably up on the score cards and came out very active. Jeffery controlled the first half of the final round after backing Rosta up into a clinch again but stayed active within that position, working the mid-section quite a bit. With about a minute left and still standing, Jeffery tried to drag Rosta to the canvas, but found no success before the two broke free and used the time remaining to score any last points, Rosta firing several heavy shots towards Jeffery in the dying seconds of the fight.

The scorecards had it split, with two judges siding with Rosta 29-28. The dissenting judge, meanwhile, gave all three rounds to Aaron Jeffery. That was all it took, however, for Dalton Rosta to advance to the PFL Middleweight World Tournament final.

Official Result: Dalton Rosta def. Aaron Jeffery by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)

The post PFL Chicago: Dalton Rosta Avenges Loss to Aaron Jeffery appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I’m going to beat his a** again,” Jeffery said during this week’s media day, referring to their 2023 fight where he handed Rosta his first and only professional loss.

With trash-talk building on both sides throughout the week, questions about rising tensions were quickly shut down by the Canadian.

“Not personal at all, man. I don’t know this guy. We’ve had next to zero interaction with each other, other than the 15 minutes in the cage.”

When Aaron Jeffery first took on Dalton Rosta, the fight came at opposing times in their careers. Jeffery was coming off a disappointing loss to John Salter, while Rosta was shooting his way up the ranks as the next big prospect at 185lbs.

“It’s been two years. Like he says, he’s a completely different man, I’m a different man, it’s a tournament, there’s high stakes.”

Aaron Jeffery on Rosta’s Improvements: “He’s Very Similar”

When following up on whether he truly believed that Rosta had made significant changes, Jeffery backtracked and clarified his statements,

“Yes and no. Guys improve over their careers. That’s what we try and do. To completely change your style, I don’t know how many fighters we’ve seen that have changed their style in the prime of their career.” Jeffery continued, “I think he’s very similar; he says he’s not. Of course, he’s made some improvements, but the style is the same.”

Despite his toughness, Jeffery did manage to wear down and break Rosta in the third round of their first fight, nearly securing a finish, which he plans to get this time around.

“I think he has been known to slow down quite a bit in his fights, and I think that’s a pretty reasonable expectation.”

When asked who he expected to see in the final, Jeffery was conflicted, but he prefers a fight against Josh Silveira over a rematch with Fabian Edwards. His reasoning for wanting the Silveira matchup was unique, to say the least.

“I like him a lot as a person, I think he’s a cool guy. It sounds weird that I like him, but I want to fight him because I like him.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Aaron Jeffery above. He takes on Dalton Rosta in the semifinals of the PFL World Tournament on Friday night.

The post Aaron Jeffery Feels Dalton Rosta’s “Style is the Same”, Wants “Cool Guy” Silveira in Finals appeared first on Cageside Press.

2023 light heavyweight tournament champ Impa Kasanganay, who went all the way to the 2024 final before losing to Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov, is back. So too is Josh Silveira, the 2023 finalist and 2024 semifinalist, who was bounced both seasons by Kasanganay.

Prior to 2025, the PFL did not feature a middleweight division as part of its season/tournament format. As a result, fighters like Kasanganay, who fought at 185lbs in the UFC, moved up.

In addition, Bellator vet Aaron Jeffrey will join the tournament fresh off a win over former Bellator welterweight champ/middleweight challenger Douglas Lima. Dalton Rosta is another Bellator MMA import set to join the tournament, as is Fabian Edwards. Edwards, a two-time Bellator middleweight title challenger, is brother of former UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards. After coming up short twice against Johnny Eblen, Edwards now has another crack at winning a major world championship.

The full eight-man PFL middleweight roster breaks down as follows:

• Impa Kasanganay (18-5) of the United States
• Mike Shipman (17-4) of England
• Fabian Edwards (13-4) of England
• Aaron Jeffery (14-5) of Canada
• Josh Silveira (13-4) of the United States
• Sadibou Sy (17-8-2) of Sweden
• Murad Ramazanov (12-2, 1NC) of Russia
• Dalton Rosta (9-1) of the United States

Alternates are expected to be announced shortly.

The post PFL’s 2025 Middleweight World Tournament: Kasanganay, Silveira Return appeared first on Cageside Press.

Jeffery (15-5) would later admit that it was surreal looking across the cage at a fighter he had watched compete for years, and had even rooted for.

“It’s pretty cool, man. Douglas Lima, and it was my 20th pro fight. Both those things are pretty cool,” Jeffery told media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout. “It was crazy looking across the cage and seeing Douglas Lima. I’ve been watching him for a long time, I’ve rooted for him in all the fights of his that I’ve watched. So at the beginning of round one, to look over and see him, it was pretty surreal.”

Jeffery is aware that Costello Van Steenis is likely ahead of him for a title shot, once Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards finally settle their business. With that in mind, the 31-year old is open to options, including the PFL.

“They don’t do a ton of middleweight fights, but if they want to throw me on a showcase fight or whatever, that’s cool,” noted Jeffery.

Jeffery would also field questions about his wrestling, and whether he was confident he’d be able to take Lima down. “Yes and no. We’ve seen him be taken down so many times in a few of his last fights. I knew he was going to be hard to take down but I was pretty confident that I was going to get him down.”

While the Canadian was looking a little banged up after Bellator San Diego, he remained in good spirits enough to take it all in stride. “You should see the other guy,” he joked.

Heading into the third round, Jeffery knew he’d have to dig deep to pull out the victory. He did exactly that. “I assumed that it was 1-1 going into round three, and I was like ‘this f*cking sucks, I’ve got to work really hard for another five minutes, and that’s what I’ve got to do.’ And I’m happy that it went the way that it did.”

Watch the full Bellator San Diego post-fight press scrum with Aaron Jeffery above.

The post Aaron Jeffery: “Pretty Surreal” to See Douglas Lima Across From Him at Bellator San Diego appeared first on Cageside Press.

Jeffery (14-5), who trains out of Southern Ontario’s Niagara Top Team, has spent time training alongside the likes of Aung La N Sang and Brendan Allen at Kill Cliff in Florida. It’s an environment that sees some of the top middleweights across multiple promotions pushing one another to new heights.

“It’s awesome man. It’s so cool to be in a place with so many high-level guys on the same mission. Everyone shows up every day, works hard. We all have the same goals, we’re helping each other out, we’re pushing each other,” Jeffery told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of his latest assignment. “It’s a sick atmosphere.”

Allen in particular is a fighter Jeffery knows well. The pair first crossed paths on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019, with “All In” winning via submission, as he often does. It’s a loss that has aged well, given Allen is now considered a contender in the UFC’s middleweight division. One that perhaps shows Jeffery how far he’s come himself.

“For sure. The fight was a long time ago, I was 6-1, he was 11-3, we’ve both doubled our records since then. But to be able to get to train with him and know the guys he’s beaten in the UFC, and train with him and have solid rounds, it’s confirming that I’m doing the right work too,” noted Jeffery.

A more recent loss came at the hands of Fabian Edwards, who was expected to challenge champ Johnny Eblen next, until the bout was recently postponed. While there are always tactical improvements to be made after a loss, there was one key takeaway following the fight for Aaron Jeffery.

“I think it was more mental stuff for me. For whatever reason, I was just not able to pull the trigger and execute the game plan that I wanted to. So I just did a lot of work on kind of the mental side of things,” he explained. “Obviously again, getting better physically, technically, but I think there were some things I needed to work on from the psychological standpoint.”

With that in mind, Jeffery wound up working alongside a sports psychologist. “And speaking of Brendan Allen, he was the one who recommended him. I heard [Allen] talking about him in the gym, and he said he changed his life. If you know Brendan Allen, you know he’s not the type of guy to believe in any ‘woo woo’ kind of stuff.”

Jeffery decided to give the man a shot, and has been with him several months now. “I like it a lot,” Jeffery added.

Now it’s on to Douglas Lima, a multi-time Bellator MMA middleweight champion, at one time one of the faces of the promotion. If there was a Bellator Hall of Fame, Lima would almost certainly be in it.

Jeffery, who followed Lima’s career early on, loves the upside of the fight. “He’s good, and it’s kind of a high-risk fight because of his skill set, but it’s a very high-reward fight too. You get a name of someone that nobody knows who they are and they’re a killer, you’re like, that’s kind of a low-reward, high-risk fight. But this guy, it doesn’t get any better than that. He’s a two or three time champ, he’s been in the promotion for more fights than I’ve had in my whole career. Very big name guy, so it’s a very good opportunity for me.”

And while a title shot might not be in the offing with a win, Jeffery is hoping it might lead to a title eliminator.

Watch our full interview with Bellator San Diego’s Aaron Jeffery above.

The post Bellator San Diego: Aaron Jeffery Sees Douglas Lima as “Very High-Reward” Fight appeared first on Cageside Press.

There was no need to point out the importance of the fight for these two, with a shot at champ Johnny Eblen hanging in the balance.

Early on, the pair went to work along the fence, jockeying for position. While Fabian would get his opponent to a knee, the takedown wasn’t completed, and Jeffery stood back up, getting back in the driver’s seat.

Not a lot of action through the first ninety seconds, with the ref taking a good look at the pair but allowing them to continue. Jeffery would briefly get double underhooks, and fire shoulder strikes and knees, drawing a complaint of a low blow, though the referee had them fight on.

The bit of action the did play out off the fence saw Edwards land a left, which Jeffery answered back with elbows.

Round two started off in similar fashion, but when they came off the fence, Edwards stumbled off a Jeffery kick. Fabian then changed levels to pursue a takedown, but couldn’t land it; Aaron Jeffery instead reversed position and pressed Edwards against the cage. Edwards did manage to reverse the position, but was warned for grabbing the fence.

Edwards then wisely broke, found some distance and landed his left jab once, then twice. A cut opened up on the Canadian. But Jeffery soon re-engaged, clinching up once more. Late in the round, however, Edwards managed to scale the back, getting a body lock in place and briefly riding his opponent before sliding off. Jeffery then walked forward, only to be hit with another Edwards left hand, not to mention an uppercut.

Round three saw a couple of early exchanges with Edwards once again landing his left, while Jeffery tried to tie things up. The Canadian then smashed Edwards with an upwards elbow as he closed the distance, but Edwards reversed position along the fence and landed a throw. Jeffery, however, reversed position immediately and the pair went right back to the feet.

Much of the remaining time was spent in a grinding, grappling heavy affair along the fence. With about 25 seconds left on the clock, Edwards escaped, but was quickly pressed back up into the cage once again, with Jeffery landing more knees.

The judges sided with Fabian Edwards unanimously, two rounds to one. That books him a rematch with Eblen later in the year.

Official Result: Fabian Edwards def. Aaron Jeffery by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) 

The post Bellator Belfast: Fabian Edwards Wins Grindfest Over Aaron Jeffery in Middleweight Title Eliminator appeared first on Cageside Press.

It’s a high-profile opponent, with Edwards the brother of UFC welterweight champ Leon, and a high-stakes match-up, but Jeffery (14-4) doesn’t need that for motivation or to perform any better.

“I don’t think it makes a difference,” Jeffery told Cageside Press during this week’s Bellator Belfast media day. “I’ve been saying this in every interview lately, my first fight was my Bellator debut, that felt huge. The next one was short-notice against number two in the division, that felt huge. The next one was against John Salter, he was ranked #4, people were kind of saying I might have got a title shot after that one, so that was huge. Then I lost that one, my back was against the wall fighting #4 Dalton Rosta, so that one was huge.”

Jeffery defeated Rosta, and has now landed himself in this latest big opportunity. As the Niagara Top Team fighter put it, “they all kind of feel the same, every fight’s high stakes at this point.”

As for whether Aaron Jeffery believes a win over Edwards will be enough to land a fight with 185lb champ Johnny Eblen, “I think so, man,” he stated. “They’ve announced it as the number one contender fight, so I don’t know what else I need to be told to believe that. I’m hoping so.”

Watch the full Bellator Belfast media day appearance by Aaron Jeffery above.

The post Aaron Jeffery Says All Fights Feel the Same Despite Big Opportunity at Bellator Belfast appeared first on Cageside Press.

Headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Corey Anderson and Karl Moore, Bellator 302 has now added several more match-ups, including a pair of number one contender fights.

News of the bookings was announced via press release on Tuesday. In the middleweight division, recent title challenger Fabian Edwards (12-3) will look to earn a second shot at gold when he takes on Canada’s Aaron Jeffery’s (14-4).

Edwards came up short against Johnny Eblen last year, with Eblen retaining his 185lb title. The champ will now face Impa Kasanganay as part of the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions card later this month,

Jeffery is 3-1 in Bellator with his lone loss coming to ex-title challenger and UFC vet John Salter. He holds wins over Austin Vanderford and Dalton Rosta.

The second title eliminator set for Bellator 302 in Belfast sees Ireland’s James Gallagher (12-2) take on another Canadian in Jeremy Kennedy (19-3) at featherweight. Kennedy has won three straight, while Gallagher has notched wins in five of his last six fights.

With Tuesday’s announcements, the Bellator 302 card at the SSE Arena Belfast on March 22 now features the following match-ups:

• Corey Anderson vs. Karl Moore — for the vacant Bellator MMA light heavyweight championship
• Leah McCourt vs. Sinead Kavanagh
• Fabian Edwards vs. Aaron Jeffery — middleweight number one contender bout
• Jeremy Kennedy vs James Gallagher —  featherweight number one contender bout
• Tim Wilde vs. Manoel Sousa
• Ciaran Clarke vs. Darius Mafi
• Tofiq Musayev Alfie Davis
• Nathan Kelly vs. Vikas Singh Ruhil
• Abraham Bably vs. Isaiah Pinson

The post Two Number One Contender Bouts Land on Bellator 302 in Belfast appeared first on Cageside Press.

His opponent?

Well Jeffery couldn’t disclose that information just yet, but in regards to potential dance partners, three names come to mind: Former Bellator Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi, recent title challenger Fabian Edwards, and Bellator’s newest addition to the middleweight rankings and former top ranked light heavyweight, Grant Neal.

Regardless of whether his opponent is one of the three aforementioned fighters, Jeffery is glad to know that he’ll be making the walk once again in the coming months.

“I finally got some fight news so I’m pumped to get back in there,” Jeffery said in an interview with Cageside Press.

The Canadian middleweight has stood across some of the best 185ers in the sport, including the likes of Sean Brady, Andre Petroski, Brendan Allen, and Caio Borralho. He then made his way to Bellator where he would amass three victories in four fights, recording KOs over Fabio Aguiar and Austin Vanderford prior to defeating the then undefeated Dalton Rosta by decision his last time out.

“The performance was good man. I’m happy with it,” Jeffery said regarding his most recent bout. “(Rosta) was a tough guy, ranked in the top 10. Looking back on it I wish I got a finish, but it was a good performance overall.”

While the identity of Jeffery’s next opponent has not yet been revealed, one man that he will not be sharing the cage with (yet) is Bellator Middleweight Champion Johnny Eblen. Though Jeffery had seemingly secured a shot at middleweight gold with his victory over Rosta, the merging of the two premier MMA promotions (PFL and Bellator) paved way for a champions versus champions card, one that will feature a matchup between Eblen and PFL Light Heavyweight Champion Impa Kasanganay, who happens to be a good friend and teammate of Jeffery’s down at Kill Cliff FC in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

“(Impa) said that every time PFL offered him this fight he was like ‘I’ll fight anyone anywhere…But you know my boy Aaron Jeffery is next in line.’ And I believe him when he says that he told them that,” Jeffery said. “But no, I’m happy for him man. That guy works very hard. He’s made a lot of sacrifices and he’s finally doing very big things with his career. It’s very cool to see.”

Jeffery spends most of his time in his native land up north at Niagara Top Team, a gym that has been on the rise as of late, largely due to the success of Jasmine Jasudavicius, Mike Malott, and of course, the man that made the mullet more famous than Billy Ray Cyrus. Though in recent years Jeffery has dedicated a portion of his training camp to Kill Cliff FC, where he benefits from different looks in the gym and warmer weather in the winter, in addition to high-level coaching under the watchful eye of Henri Hooft.

“The vibes at Kill Cliff are very similar (to Niagara Top Team) man. I think that’s why I like it. There’s so much that reminds me a lot of home. There’s a strong team atmosphere where guys are trying to help each other out. ‘Shut up and work hard’ is kind of like the the motto of the gym, so I like it,” Jeffery said. “It’s also the big bodies down there. I don’t have a lot of bigger guys (at NTT). So I need to get down there and move around with some middleweights and light heavyweights.”

The last few months have been challenging in many different ways for Bellator fighters, largely pertaining to the uncertainty that loomed over their futures within the newly merged promotion. Jeffery, however, maintained a realistic outlook on the situation and understands that there is a business side to this sport.

“Fighters – We’re pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole right…Unfortunately we don’t really have much pull in any of this,” Jeffery said. “There’s a million MMA fighters out there that want to be in the position we’re in, so they don’t really need us exactly. So yeah – we get the short end of the stick.”

And he’s right.

There are millions of fighters out there, but there’s only one Aaron Jeffery. Fans and members of the MMA community will be on the lookout for updates to come as they await AJ’s return to the cage.

The post Aaron Jeffery: The Man That Made The Mullet More Famous Than Billy Ray Cyrus appeared first on Cageside Press.

Perhaps even a title shot?

“Yeah, gimmie the belt,” Jeffery (14-4) said following the fight, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “Why not?”

Next up for the title is Fabian Edwards, however. He fights Johnny Eblen for championship gold in Dublin, Ireland next month — beyond that, nothing is certain in Bellator at the moment, with the company reportedly up for sale.

As for Jeffery, during a gruelling three-round fight with hulking middleweight Dalton Rosta, things went according to plan. And any perceived frustration at the end of the fight wasn’t that, even with Rosta hanging on to takedown attempts that simply weren’t happening.

“It wasn’t even frustration. I don’t know. I knew he was f*cking done, and I had that position. I was kind of f*cking around a little bit, seeing what was going to happen. He just stayed down there, didn’t really give me a ton of sh*t to open up with,” explained Jeffery. “I maybe could have stood up and done something. At the end I stood up and threw the kicks to the body and whatever.”

“He was just done, it seemed like he quit down there and I was kind of just having fun.”

Jeffery, with a 3-1 start to his Bellator run, appears to have lived up to expectations, just not his own. Still, he hopes the promotion keeps giving him big spots.

“I hope so. I don’t think I’ve lived up to my own expectations yet. I think I can do a lot better than that still,” said Jeffery. “I think I’m maybe starting to find my groove here a little bit. I got a loss out of the way, you never want to lose but I think having that kind of behind me now, maybe there’s a little bit of pressure off too.”

“I think I’m only going up from here,” he added. Before worrying about title shots or anything else, however, first comes the celebration. Set to feature “30 beers and 20 slices of pizza,” joked Jeffery.

Watch the full Bellator 298 post-fight press conference with Aaron Jeffery above.

The post Bellator 298: Aaron Jeffery Feels He’s Finding His Groove Now appeared first on Cageside Press.