No One-Trick Pony: A Different Side to Two-Time PFL Champion Antonio Carlos Jr.

Antonio Carlos Jr. made a name for himself through world-class jiu-jitsu. However, the Brazilian showed off significant improvement in his standup skills and rode them to his second Professional Fighters League championship in the PFL 2025 World Tournament.

Carlos Jr. put away Sullivan Cauley with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their light heavyweight final, which buoyed PFL 2025 World Tournament 10 on Aug. 21 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Improved striking set up the submission, as the American Top Team mainstay battered Cauley with a variety of weapons before prompting his surrender.

“I’ve been working on my striking for a long time,” Carlos Jr. told Sherdog.com. “My coaches at ATT have been helping me out a ton, and one of my coaches told me to always believe in my hands. He told me to believe in them, mix them in and use them. The best part of it all is my coaches said that mixing in my striking would help showcase my jiu-jitsu, and it has done just that.”

Carlos Jr. was cut by the Ultimate Fighting Championship while on a three-fight losing streak in 2021. He quickly signed with the PFL and went on to win his first tournament with the promotion mere months later. Carlos Jr. spent the next two years on the sidelines due to multiple injuries and subsequent surgeries. When he returned in 2024, he was not where he wanted to be from a competitive standpoint. Then came his unforgettable 2025 campaign. Adversity, it seems, served him well.

“What would I say to the 2021 version of me? Just keep going. Just keep working,” Carlos Jr. said. “In the beginning of this year, we wrote a message for ourselves, and I wrote to keep believing in myself. I look at the piece of paper before every fight, and I looked at it after winning this tournament. It all makes sense to me now.”

Carlos Jr. recognizes that the struggles made his successes sweeter and validate his years of disciplined dedication to his craft.

“I’m just trying to improve,” he said. “I’ve been trying to improve as a man and trying to improve as a fighter. I can say I’m a lot better person because of the adversity I’ve gone through. Even through the hard times, you have to be honest with yourself. You have to surround yourself with special people and those who believe in you. They’ve pushed me to keep doing what I love to do.”

A key piece of the PFL roster for four-plus years now, Carlos Jr. cannot envision himself competing anywhere else.

“I love the PFL,” he said. “They’ve changed my life. They brought me in [back in] 2021 when I was cut from the UFC, and I would go on to win the belt. Here we are again. I’ve got another belt. [PFL President of Fighter Operations] Ray [Sefo] is a man of his word. He was a fighter. He knows how it is to be inside the cage. I’m really grateful for the PFL and everything they’ve done for me.”