Brian Battle earned a hometown victory over Dalton Rosta in the main event of PFL Charlotte, held Friday at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Battle (13-3) defeated Rosta (11-4) by split decision, with scorecards reading 29-28 — two judges favoring Battle and one for Rosta. The win was a bounce-back for Battle, who had suffered a submission loss to interim PFL middleweight champion Johnny Eblen in his promotional debut in March. Rosta, meanwhile, falls to a three-fight losing streak.
Brian Battle earned a split-decision victory over Dalton Rosta in the main event of PFL Charlotte on Friday night at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, giving the hometown fighter a pivotal bounce-back win in the middleweight division.
Two of the three judges sided with Battle, with scorecards reading 29-28 across the board — one card going to Rosta and two going to Battle. The result snapped what had been a difficult stretch for Battle, who entered the bout having suffered a submission loss to interim PFL middleweight champion Johnny Eblen in his promotional debut back in March. The win resets his trajectory at 13-3 overall.
For Rosta, the defeat extends a troubling run. The 30-year-old American, nicknamed "Hercules," now sits at 11-4 and has dropped three consecutive fights. Standing six feet tall with a 75-inch reach, Rosta is a measured striker who lands at a rate of 1.19 significant strikes per minute but does so with notable efficiency, connecting on more than 56 percent of his attempts. He also averages two takedowns per 15 minutes, giving him a well-rounded offensive profile, though he rarely turns to submissions on the ground.
Why it matters
- Battle's victory keeps him relevant in the PFL middleweight picture after his stumble against Eblen, the division's interim champion.
- Rosta's three-fight skid raises serious questions about where he fits in the competitive PFL middleweight field going forward.
- The main-event slot in Charlotte underlined the stakes for both fighters, and the narrow split-decision margin suggests either man could have taken the result on a different night.
