PFL 6 star Bubba Jenkins is not one to back down from a fight, and that won’t change when the “Bad Man” enters the cage this Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Still, given his choice, he would have fought anyone other than Brazil’s Gabriel Braga.
The pair will fight Friday, which is just an unfortunate side effect of MMA, and the PFL’s tournament format. The matchmaking has dictated that Jenkins and Braga face off, but in recent times, Jenkins has actually been rooting for his fellow featherweight.
“It is tough to have to face him in the cage knowing what he’s going through,” admitted Jenkins in an interview with Cageside Press ahead of Friday’s PFL 6.
Rooting for Braga started before the murder of the Brazilian’s father earlier this year, which makes it even harder for Jenkins to face the man in the cage.
“Very much harder. Very much harder because I knew his father. Me and his father had a good relationship. Me, him and his father bonded in the growing of the PFL, and being in the PFL,” revealed Jenkins, a longtime veteran of the PFL, and before that, Bellator MMA. “Being in the locker rooms and fighting at the same time. Just having that comradery that you have with warriors being in the same camp.”
“He’s one of the guys that I like in the sport, that I like in mixed martial arts and in the company,” Jenkins continued. “You don’t always get to fight guys that you want to fight, sometimes you have to fight guys that you don’t want to fight or are that on the friend side of things.”
That, however, “just makes you a better competitor, and a less emotional, braggadocios person when it comes to me,” Bubba added. “Because a lot of times my braggadociosness and my openness comes from trying to pull something out of my opponent, or just having some fun entertaining. But this is strictly business, it has nothing to with entertaining or the opposite opponent. This is strictly, we have to go do what we have to do. If I had my way, I would sign somebody else up for this application.”
Watch our full interview with 2024 PFL 6 featherweight Bubba Jenkins above.
