Latvia’s Aleksandrs “Pretty Boy” Čižovs delivered a statement win on Saturday, scoring a spectacular first-round knockout over Scotland’s Mark Ewen in their PFL Europe lightweight tournament bout at the SSE Arena in Belfast. Čižovs needed just 93 seconds of the opening round to dispatch Ewen and punch his ticket to the semifinal stage.
The 28-year-old lightweight dropped Ewen with a left hook midway through Round 1, then followed up with punches on the ground before the referee intervened to halt the fight. The official result was a TKO at 1:33 of the first round.
This victory marks a major turnaround for Aleksandrs Čižovs. A former Latvian national combat sambo champion in 2016 and 2017, Čižovs now holds a professional record of 11–3, with 10 of his 11 victories coming by stoppage. There was much significance to this fight’s triumph after a recent slump — despite his evident skill, he had experienced setbacks in the PFL prior to this Belfast breakout.
He made his PFL debut in 2022 with a submission win in London, but Aleksandrs struggled in the inaugural PFL Europe season in 2023 and again in 2024. In each of the past two years, Čižovs was eliminated in his first tournament bout — dropping a decision to Spain’s Acoidan Duque in 2023 and succumbing to a first-round submission against Italy’s Daniele Scatizzi in 2024.
Those back-to-back losses left him hungry for redemption. By knocking out Ewen in Belfast, Čižovs snapped his two-fight PFL skid and advanced past the opening round of the PFL Europe playoffs for the very first time.
Mark Ewen, for his part, entered with a 6–1 record. The 25-year-old Scotsman had finished all of his wins and was coming off a victory last fall, but he had no answer for Chizovs’ power on this night. Ewen suffered his second PFL Europe defeat.
Saturday’s bout in Belfast was part of the PFL Europe 2025 lightweight tournament, an eight-man bracket featuring top fighters from across the continent. All four lightweight quarterfinal fights took place on the PFL Europe 1 card at the SSE Arena, with Čižovs’ win being one of the four fighters to advance to the next round. Under the PFL Europe format, competitors have “one shot to win three bouts across the year” — quarterfinal, semifinal, and final — to claim the PFL Europe Championship in their weight class. The ultimate prize at stake is substantial: the tournament champion will earn the PFL Europe title belt and a $100,000 cash prize.
This European league, launched by the Professional Fighters League in 2023, is designed for regional talent — to give fighters a path toward greater opportunities. PFL Europe is run on a seasonal single-elimination playoff structure, distinct from the PFL’s main global season format.
By dispatching Mark Ewen, Aleksandrs Čižovs now moves on to the PFL Europe lightweight semifinals later this year. His next challenge is already set: Chizovs will face Italy’s Claudio Pacella in the semifinal round. Pacella (6–2) earned his own semifinal berth on the Belfast card by defeating England’s Gavin Hughes via unanimous decision after three hard-fought rounds. Notably, Pacella is the same fighter who handed Mark Ewen his first career loss last year, adding a bit of an intriguing storyline to the upcoming fight.
If Chizovs can carry this form forward, he has a chance to become the first Latvian to capture a PFL Europe title. A semifinal victory would propel him into the tournament final, likely scheduled for later in 2025, where the lightweight championship and $100,000 prize await the last man standing. He has all the momentum — let’s see where he goes!
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