It all makes sense now for Jesus Pinedo.
Just a few months ago, Pinedo was convinced that he was going to win his second PFL tournament when he stepped in the cage to face Movlid Khaybulaev at the 2025 PFL featherweight tournament final in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However, things didn’t go well for him that night. Pinedo, who was on a five-fight winning streak with all victories coming by KO or TKO, was dominated for the majority of the fight and then submitted late in the fifth and final round.
Advertisement
It was a tough pill to swallow, as Khaybulaev gave him a fight he didn’t expect from him.
“I told you before that the strategy against him was to pressure him because he’s a rival that gets tired,” Pinedo told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. “You watch all his fights in the tournament and he’s completely a different fighter. He wasn’t the same guy.
“In the second rounds, he can’t wrestle, he can’t strike – he changes. Yet, against me, he was a completely different fighter. The strategy was to get him tired in the first three rounds and then go out to finish him in the fourth and fifth rounds, but that never came to be because he never got tired. The strategy didn’t work the way it was supposed to. I’m 100 percent sure that I beat him without him cheating.”
Pinedo was surprised by Khaybulaev’s endurance in their PFL final. Ahead of the fight, he had pointed at Khaybulaev’s cardio as a weakness and made no secret he was going to target it. Yet, Khaybulaev was abale to maintain a steady pace and out-grapple Pinedo for the entire fight.
Advertisement
Fast-forward five months, and USADA, PFL’s anti-doping partner at the time, announced that Khaybulaev had tested positive for recombinant erythropoietin, failing a drug test the day of his title-clinching win over Pinedo. Recombinant erythropoietin, also known as EPO, is a synthetic hormone that’s been illegally used in sports to boost endurance, enhancing oxygen delivery to muscles and increasing stamina.
It’s unclear at this time if the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (NJSACB) will take additional action, such as a fine or overturning the result to a no contest, since the positive test came from an independent third party.
Even if the fight is ruled a no contest, which will likely be the case, Pinedo is not happy with the end result.
“I heard the fight is going to be a no contest, but it takes time to make that change,” Pinedo said. “The fight result will be canceled, but the fight still happened. It hurt me, my team, and a whole country who wanted to see me become champion again. That’s what I went to the tournament for, I went to become a champion. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen this time, and it was due to this whole antidoting thing. Again, I’m 100 percent sure I belt him with him not cheating. He cheated. He wasn’t the same fighter, at all. That made the difference.”
Advertisement
Pinedo, who returns to the cage on Feb. 7 at PFL Dubai against Salamat Isbulaev, is not looking to dwell too much on the incident with Khaybulaev, but he also has a hard time taking away positives from the experience.
“More than upset, I’m just disappointed,” Pinedo said. “I’m disappointed because as I told you in the lead-up to the final, I was excited and happy to be fighting against someone of that level and all that history he carries with the team he has behind him. I was very happy, but I end up getting the surprise that he was cheating. There’s no other way of putting it. He cheated. He was cheating. I’m extremely disappointed as a fighter and martial artist. These things happen. It’s not PFL’s fault. It’s not my fault. It’s all on him.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: PFL’s Jesus Pinedo upset over Movlid Khaybulaev’s failed drug test
