Welterweight Charlie Leary will make his PFL debut in Newcastle, England on June 8, part of the PFL Europe 2 card which has him looking to return to the win column, sort of.
Leary (17-13-1, 1NC) did have back-to-back losses opposite Davy Gallon and Soren Bak under the Bellator banner in 2022. In his lone fight in 2023, however, Leary went up against UFC alum Yancy Medeiros, only to be submitted by a rear-naked choke— a result later overturned to a No Contest when Medeiros failed a drug test.
That situation is “a tough one,” Leary told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview ahead of PFL Newcastle. “It’s a hard one when they overturn it to a No Contest, because I feel like- I understand if it was a tainted supplement, or something went wrong, or it was questionable. He openly admitted he had taken something because he’s got a bad knee, that’s why it was at a catchweight as well. He was just trying to get to the fight and stuff like that.”
In Leary’s mind, there’s a better option than a No Contest when it comes to overturning results. “Me personally, I feel like maybe it should have been put down as a DQ, because if it was a foul in the fight, which theoretically it was— but you’ve got to get past it. It’s one of them things, it’s over now, if you dwell on that sort of stuff, you’re never going to progress. It is what it is.”
Leary noted that he’s lost questionable decisions, and probably won some as well, summing things up by saying “you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.”
Charlie Leary certainly isn’t alone in his sentiments. Still, it’s on to a date in Newcastle with fellow Brit Jack Grant.
“You know what, I think it’s a great match-up,” Leary said when asked for his thoughts on the pairing. “I keep saying, he’s been on my radar for a long time, because if you look at the records, we both fought on the same sort of shows coming up.” That includes the likes of Cage Warriors, Brave CF, and Bellator MMA. “So he’s always been someone around the same sort of shows, but I’ve never really crossed paths with him. So he’s always been in my peripheral vision sort of thing.”
The pair have also moved in similar circles when it comes to weight classes, welterweight and lightweight in particular. “And I like the way he fights,” added Leary. “Watching his fights, it’s always an exciting fight.”
Watch our full interview with PFL Europe 2’s Charlie Leary above.
