Nashville, TN — Welterweight Logan Storley punched his ticket to the PFL World Tournament final at PFL Nashville on Thursday, care of a unanimous decision win over Masayuki Kikuiri.
It’s now seven weeks to a fight with Thad Jean, though Storley (18-3) had been rooting for teammate Jason Jackson instead. Jean took that fight by split decision later in the night.
As far as the turnaround, “it’s not a long time, and I’ve been in these situations before with wrestling, high-level tournaments, doing a season,” Storley told media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout. “I know how to do it, and I have the best team in the world.”
The compact schedule of the World Tournament, however, is something Storley sees as beneficial in the long run. “It’s nice when you get to stay active, because you’ve done Fight Week before the walk. Everything gets a little more comfortable. That was my what, 21st fight? When you take long breaks, it always sucks to go back to it. When you get to stay active, I think it just helps build that momentum.”
Much has been made in the PFL essentially halving the prize money for their World Tournament this year. In their previous season format, winners took home a million dollars, cumulative throughout the season. Now, fighters get their purse plus $500,000 should they win the tournament, which is a single-elimination, grand prix style.
Critics have pointed to the pay cut as a sign of the PFL’s struggles, but Storley doesn’t seem fixated on the money.
“For me, this year we spent a lot of time on being grateful for the opportunity to compete, not about the money. A lot of people have made five hundred grand or a million dollars in their life. Not a lot, very very very few people ever get to compete at the highest level in front of people for a living. So I’m pretty grateful to get to do that, and get to do it with some of my best friends in my corner.”
Watch the full PFL Nashville post-fight media appearance by Logan Storley above.
