Charlotte — Middleweight Aaron Jeffery picked up a key victory over former PFL Global finalist Josh Silveira at PFL Charlotte on Friday, in a fight that almost didn’t materialize after the Canadian briefly decided to pull the plug on his career.
Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina following a decision win, Jeffery (17-6) reflected on the fight, and his choice to continue on in his career.
“I would always like to make it a pretty fight, show off my skills a little bit more because I swear I have some. But I’m getting to know myself a little bit better every time I fight,” Jeffery said of the affair, which saw him working over Silveira against the fence for a good chunk of time. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet on the fight looking like that.”
The Niagara Top Team athlete, who trains alongside the likes of Jasmine Jasudavicius and Mike Malott, wasn’t surprised by much in the fight.
“No. I would like to say I’m surprised that I didn’t have questionable moments in the fight, like I got wobbled once, he had me in a front head lock pretty tight once,” stated Jeffery, going on to add “it’s a fight, and sh*t happens.”
It almost didn’t happen. Meaning the fight, period. Dealing with an injury and out of action for over a year, Jeffery came close to walking away from mixed martial arts, at least as an active fighter.
“I’ve been saying it all week that I didn’t think I’d be back here. I had a sh*tty injury that, I didn’t know if I would fight again. And I kind of had made the decision at one point that I wouldn’t, and tried to move on with my life and I wasn’t happy and I decided to come back. I’ve been saying it all week, and it sounds cliché and boring and stuff, but I was just happy to be here.”
Jeffery, who was offered a fight while injured, would like to fight again by the end of the year. At the same time, he joked, “I feel horrible. I mean very happy I won, but I don’t feel good at all.”
The good news is, Jeffery appears ready to fight on. And he does so under a new-look PFL, soon to be rebranded as MVP as it merges with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions. That should bring some opportunities with it. Jeffery might jump at the right one, though he admitted that “it depends on the match-up.”
“Fighting a pro boxer, maybe not. Fighting an MMA guy in a boxing match, sure.”
Watch the full PFL Charlotte post-fight press conference with Aaron Jeffery above.
