2025 World Tournament winner Thad Jean finally returns to action in the main event of PFL Washington later this month, taking on Shamil Musaev with the promotion’s vacant welterweight title on the line.
It will have been nearly a year between fights for the undefeated Jean (11-0), a breakout star for the Professional Fighters League last year. “I wanted to get into the cage in January. I wanted to get back beginning of the year, but it’s up to the PFL at the end of the day when it comes to when I fight because I am fighting with the PFL,” he told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “At the same time, I’m happy that I’m fighting now and not then, because I’m ready. I’m ready.”
Jean was not expected to win last year’s World Tournament at lightweight, especially not with former Bellator stars (and champions) Logan Storley and Jason Jackson in his way. Instead, he beat both, along with the talented Mukhamed Berkhamov. That tournament win, worth half a million dollars, allowed Jean to reinvest in himself.
“Because of the tournament, I was able to go into the gym full time. After the tournament, yeah I took a little vacation, I took a month off, and I went right back to it,” stated Jean. “It was every day. It is my job, it is my career. You have to take it as if it’s nine to five. And it’s not a nine to five. I’m only in there a couple of hours out of the day. Yeah it’s spread out throughout the day, but it’s only a couple of hours, I would say four hours a day that I’m training, and most people are at work for nine, eight to nine hours.”
In other words, Jean knows he’s in a good place. He also added that he’s not just a “fight camp” type of fighter. “I don’t just go into the gym once I have a fight camp. I’m constantly in the gym trying to get better, trying to level up my skills, trying to make sure that I am on top of my game.”
With the vacant welterweight title on the line, Jean is now tasked with Shamil Musaev next. The match-up isn’t entirely a surprise, but still a weird quirk. Musaev is coming off a loss to Ramazan Kuramagomedov, but Kuramagomedov chose to retire immediately after their fight. The bout, however, helped Jean learn a little about his upcoming opponent.
“Shmail was undefeated before that. We all took away something, that he can be beaten. And that he accepts pressure, and he’s not really good under pressure,” suggested Jean. “Unless you’re someone like Logan Storley. When Logan Storley was applying pressure to him, Logan Storley had one thing on his mind. What? Take him down. So what did Shamil Do? He what, hit him with the uppercut? And that’s what rocked Logan Storley.”
Ramazan Kuramagomedov mixed up striking and clinching instead, “and that’s what I think threw Shamil off, is that yeah, one this is good pressure, but at the same time, he’s not going right down for the legs.”
“We figured some things out. There are more things to it, but we figured out one thing. And not just me, but we all did,” Jean finished.
Watch our full interview with PFL Washington headliner Thad Jean above.
