2025 PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women's Flyweights | MMA Picks and Betting Odds April 11, 2025

PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights Betting Preview, Picks and Predictions

UFC WagerTalk handicapper Andy Lang gives his 2025 PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights picks for April 11 with Leandro Higo vs Josh Rettinghouse headlining in the main event. The main card starts up at 11:00pm ET from Universal Studios in Orlando, FL!

Are you subscribed to WagerTalk TV? If not, what are you waiting for?! Set up alerts so that you never miss an episode of your favorite shows. Drop the gloves with the Puck Time crew and swing for the fences on First Pitch. From betting tips to free picks, WagerTalk TV is your one-stop shop for streaming sports betting content.

WagerTalk also offers Free UFC Picks all year long! Also, at WagerTalk you can always find free MLB picks every day.

2025 PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights Info

Friday, April 11	2025 First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights Betting Notes (Courtesy of Caesars)
Main Event:	Leandro Higo -395 vs Josh Rettinghouse +310
Rounds:	N/A
Fight Time:	Main Card Starts at 11:00pm ET / 8:00pm PT
Arena:	Universal Studios in Orlando, FL
TV:	ESPN+

2025 PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights Predictions

Liz Carmouche -450 vs Ilara Joanne +375

Carmouche is 41 years old, and she’s coming off a loss to Saila Santos, and a suspect win against Watanabe where she was losing in the 3rd before she got the late submission, but she gets a dream matchup here.

Joanne has weak striking, and terrible takedown defense, and that’s a disastrous combo against the takedown and wrestling offense of Carmouche.

Joanne has one win recently, and that was against Shanna Young who barely threw any strikes, didn’t wrestle, and is a truck driver when she’s not “fighting”. Carmouche will get the takedown, and control her on the ground and probably get the submission.

Kasum Kasumov -395 vs Justin Wetzell +280

Both guys like to get the fight to the ground and control their opponents, but I think the biggest difference in the fighters is the striking of Kasumov, and the lack of striking from Wetzell.

His striking is pretty soft, and it’s not a threat to Kasumov as there’s not much power behind it, and you can see it coming a mile away.

Wetzell can take lesser opponents down and control them, but this is too big of a step up in competition. As effective as Kasumov is on the ground, I actually think he’s going to be better off keeping it on the feet and striking.

If it does go to the ground, I’m not sure Wetzell has the ability to hold Kasumov down to do enough damage to win rounds. Kasumov will be better everywhere, he should win.

Francesco Nuzzi -310 vs Mando Gutierrez +250

To say that both these guys have holes in their games would be an understatement. Mando Gutierrez lost in 202 on CS to Raul Rosas Jr who was 17 at the time.

I know Rosas is a bit of an athletic freak, but he needed a parents signed permission slip to fight, and Gutierrez lost to him.

Since then he’s fought in someone’s backyard and won, he lost on TUF, and on Fury Series 10, and he beat legendary jobber Erik Vo and beat someone at DEEP Tokyo Impackt 2024 who was an amateur fighter at best.

The point is, Gutierrez is really bad. He does not want the fight to be on the feet, he wants takedowns and ground control, and even though he’s pretty bad at wrestling, he can make it work against bad fighters. Nuzzi is a bad fighter.

He has no takedown defense or wrestling skills, his striking is good against fighters who don’t block their face, but I go back to that fight in 2022 against Benkaci where he was losing the striking battle, and he got slightly poked in the eye, and he fell over and milked it until the fight was ruled a no-contest, but make no-mistake, he quit in that fight.

We have a fighter who is terrible on the feet/good on the ground vs a fighter who is good on the feet/bad on the ground.

Nuzzi won’t do well if he faces adversity, but Gutierrez is awful on the feet, and Nuzzi is probably going to nuke this guy on the feet at some point, and he gets the win by KO.

2025 PFL First Round Bantamweights and Women’s Flyweights Main Event: Leandro Higo vs Josh Rettinghouse

Higo was supposed to fight Magomedov, but he pulled out so they replaced him with Rettinghouse, and I’m sorry, he’s not ready. He can wrestle a bit, but his striking is low volume and not very powerful, and his level of competition has been awful.

He’s 20-5, but his last opponent was 1-4, and before that he squeaked out a split decision against a nobody in FAC, and before that he beat someone that was 18-38.

He was on The Ultimate Fighter in 2021, but he only lasted one fight because he lost. He’s just really limited, and it’s one thing if you’re a replacement fighter for the UFC.

If you’re a replacement for PFL, you’re not good, and he’s not good. Higo should dominate this guy as he’s not PFL ready.

**************************************************

Looking for more free sports picks and sports betting tips?

Latest Betting Odds and Public Action: Vegas lines updated in real time, including who the public is betting on.
Last Minute Handicapping Advice: Check out our extensive library of handicapping tips and advice from professional Vegas handicappers (we also recommend taking the time to look over our sports betting tips video library)
Want an expert opinion? Check out the latest Free Sports Picks and Best Bets from our team of expert sports handicappers.