Thad Jean strongly believes he won’t need the full 25 minutes to claim PFL gold.
The undefeated contender expects to become the first man to stop Shamil Musaev and go back home to South Florida with the PFL welterweight title. Jean (11-0) and Musaev (20-1-1) meet in a five-round bout for the vacant PFL welterweight title in the headliner of PFL Washington (ESPN2/ESPN+), which takes place Saturday at CareFirst Arena in Washington DC.
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Jean, who has 5 KO wins, enters the biggest fight of his career with unshakeable confidence.
“I see TKO,” Jean told MMA Junkie Radio. “I see the referee stopping the fight. Do I see KO? I see the KO, but I see more TKO. I see more me knocking this dude down, because he is a strong-willed person, so even if he gets knocked down or knocked out, he’ll still want to fight. Will he be able to when ‘The Silverback’ is punching down? Probably not, so the only thing is you getting saved by the referee.”
Forty-five percent of Jean’s wins have come by decision, while 55 percent have come by finish. Although he’s shown he can go the distance, most recently defeating Logan Storley in a five-round bout back in August, Jean is not a fan of fighting the full 25 minutes.
“I can go the distance with these people and come out on top,” Jean said. “Now that I have this, I don’t want to go the distance anymore. It sucks going the distance. That is a lot. That is a lot on your cardio. We don’t get paid for the time in there. We get paid for the show we put on in there. We get paid for the knockouts. Yeah, we get paid regardless of it, but the true payment and the true satisfaction of this entertainment business is putting on an entertainment fight. With this gladiator style of fighting, what are we doing? People want to see blood. People want to see knockouts, and that’s what I want to start delivering.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Thad Jean predicts TKO win over Shamil Musaev at PFL Washington
