This year’s PFL tournament, rebranded from a “season” to the PFL World Tournament, has felt abbreviated, and that’s perhaps because it has been. It started in April, and unlike the previous PFL seasonal efforts, it’s over well before November. The finals kick off this Friday, in fact.
Still, the brisk pace is something that welterweight finalist Logan Storley, a former Bellator MMA interim champ, has appreciated.
“It’s kind of crazy because us as fighters, you always have that high of your last fight, especially the ones with the wins,” stated Storley (18-3), speaking to Cageside Press in a recent interview. “This tournament, it’s kind of like, you’re not forgetting about it, but you’re moving on because you’re getting right back into camp. And so I’ve kind of really enjoyed it just because you’re staying active.”
“I think a sport like MMA, it’s just a hard sport to get experience, and kind of get the momentum always rolling,” Storley continued. “Because you’ll fight, you’ll feel great and all of a sudden you’ll take a six month break, or you don’t fight for six months. Then you’ll have two back-to-back, then you don’t fight for six to eight months.”
Compared to other sports, noted Storley, “if you look at other major leagues, they’re competing once a week, twice a week, for 16 games, 17 games. I think MLB [major league baseball], it’s 162 games.” With the tournament format the PFL is using, keeping fighters active, “you get that momentum rolling, and you get just so much better I feel like.”
Storley, who fights Thad Jean in the welterweight PFL final in Atlantic City this Friday, might be expected to fight for the Champions Series belt next. Yet he hasn’t looked too far ahead, in part because he doesn’t know if a title shot will immediately follow the World Tournament.
“I haven’t [thought about it], because we haven’t been told a ton. PFL, I think we’re heading in the right direction, I think they’re doing a really good job – happy with the tournament, eight guys, single elimination, guys get to fight on the undercard. I really like how they did everything this year, but we haven’t really been told a ton about what this Champions Series looks like. What our scheduled looks like, all that.”
That has left Storley focusing on the tournament and the job at hand. “You go and win this tournament then you can kind of, you dictate your future, what your schedule looks like. For me that’s where I’m at right now. I’m just worried about Thad Jean, I know he’s a very tough kid, and I’ve got to go in there and beat him first.”
During Wednesday’s PFL World Tournament final media day, Storley, who works with the likes of Robbie Lawler and Nick Lentz, added that “with wrestling, you never look ahead. So Friday night, all I’m worried about is getting that belt, and then talking to PFL and see where we’re at. See what the schedule looks like next year, what their plans are, and then go from there.”
Watch our full interview with PFL welterweight Logan Storley above, and his media day appearance in Atlantic City below.
