Thad Jean wants to solidify his name as the top welterweight in PFL right by claiming the vacant title in the main event of PFL Washington DC, which goes down Saturday night at the CareFirst Arena, and already has bigger goals set for his MMA future.
Jean won the 2025 season of the PFL at 170 pounds with back-to-back victories over Jason Jackson and Logan Storley and finally returns after the longest layoff of his fighting career, a “necessary” period of time that allowed him “to level up in the gym, fix the holes that I had within the tournament and just get better all around.”
“I’m gonna say I’ve gotten up two levels, but that’s just me saying it,” Jean told MMA Fighting, “That’ll be up to you guys to see the domination that happens July 25th. And then you’ll see that, ‘Oh man, this guy was not out doing nothing. He was out going crazy and making sure that he got better on his layoff and not just chilling around and taking it easy.’”
Jean was originally set to face Musaev, but Ernesto Rodriguez stepped in at the 11th hour as a replacement when Musaev suffered weight cut “complications”. Regardless of the opponent, Jean’s head coach Daniel Mendes told MMA Fighting that the welterweight talent had a target on his back after his “brilliant” run in 2025.
“I don’t feel that at all,” Jean said before the opponent change. “I don’t wanna be the king that sits on a throne and just chills and waits for people to attack his kingdom. I wanna be like Genghis Khan, who went out and went and conquered. Or Alexander The Great, who went out and just went for land, who went for people, who went for all these things. I don’t wanna be the one with a target and getting caught sleeping. I wanna be the one catching everybody else.”
Jean didn’t feel Musaev was deserving of another immediate shot at the PFL gold since he lost a title bout to Ramazan Kuramagomedov in his previous bout. Now booked against Rodriguez, he admits the welterweight rankings may seem a little slim at the moment.
“Who else was there to fight?” Jean said. “I don’t feel like there’s anyone else in the runner up for the the PFL lineup in the welterweight that deserves the title shot as well. Who’s next after that? There’s Umalatov. Shamil Musaev knocked him out, right? And then there’s ‘Lazy King’ [Abdoul Abdouraguimov]. ‘Lazy King’ barely going against my teammate, Kendly St. Louis. [Patrick] Habirora, who’s in the European scene, he keeps calling out washed-up legends of the past. You obviously don’t want to fight. Your mentality is not of a fighter. You’re a WWE guy. You should be into entertainment business like WWE with Cedric Doumbe. That’s the European scene. That’s what they should be doing. They’re not fighters.
“If these people don’t really deserve the title shot, then who should we put that against? Should we keep putting him against people who don’t deserve it, or should we put him against the names? Should I be going after names now? And that’s what I really want to do. I don’t care about going after people who think they have a claim to the title. I want to go after people with the names, who have the fans who claim that they have the best guy. That’s what I want. Now I want the marketing aspect of it. I’m already a fighter. I know I could beat your ass. So now I’m going to show you and your fans that I can beat your ass too.”
For Jean, the biggest name for him to face in the welterweight division right now would be Doumbe, followed by Habirora and Umalatov. He leaves the door open for another route, though, which is going up in weight to challenge for the middleweight belt.
“Once I win this title, I will bring that normalcy [to welterweight],” Jean said. “‘This is our champion. Our champion needs to defend his belt against people.’ And then once I do that, I’m going to also go for that 185 belt too. I’m not tunnel vision until my fights. After my fights and in between my fights, I’m always on the broader perspective. I want everything and I want everyone.”
Jean said that he will eventually move full-time to middleweight later in his career, but plan is to carry — and defend — both titles in PFL.
“While I’m still capable of doing 170, I also want to get that double champ status,” Jean said. “That’s what I want to do. I want to be the double champ. That’s why I want to go up to the 185. People are like, ‘Oh, he’s talking.’ I don’t give a damn what you think. I don’t give a damn what you’re saying. I’m saying this and I’m going to make sure it happens, in Jesus’ name.”
Johnny Eblen won the interim middleweight title this past weekend with a knockout over Impa Kasanganay, and is expected to unify it against 185-pound champion Costello van Steenis later this year. Jean is fully confident in his abilities at middleweight, saying he would “treat Eblen as I treated Logan Storley” if given the chance.
“This guy’s going to pressure me,” Jean said of Eblen. “He’s going to want to take me down. With that aspect, let’s make sure that I keep the pressure. I’m not going to let him pressure me. I pressure the fight. And I impose my will instead of having him dictate the way that this fight goes. That’s how I see it. And then I shut it out. I force him to strike with me. And you seen what happened when he got forced to strike with Impa Kasanganay the first time they fought.
“It doesn’t matter what a person’s strengths are, you have to be the tactician to be able to overcome those strengths and impose your will. That’s how I see it. And I see myself beating Eblen, I see myself being Kasanganay — he’s such a guy, I hate to say it, but I see myself beating Impa as well. And I see myself beating Costello.”
