Jonathan Coachman's Picks: Jackson vs. Jean, Storley vs. Kikuiri

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00:00Jason Jackson getting past Korshav.

00:02Thad Jean against Berkhamov.

00:04They're matching up in this one in the semifinals,

00:07as is Logan Storley, who got past Luciano,

00:10and against Kukuri, who's going to be going against Storley

00:13after getting past Bachar.

00:15What do you think of those first-round performances by those guys,

00:18and what are you thinking of these second-round matchups

00:20as we have Jackson versus Jean, Storley versus Kukuri?

00:25Yeah, first and foremost, thank you guys for your support.

00:27I feel like this year we've really changed a lot of people.

00:30We've brought in the perception of the PFL,

00:32and it's not going to happen overnight,

00:33but I think we got off to a really good start in Orlando.

00:36So, Scott, thank you for that.

00:38And I really thought they said, especially the welterweights,

00:42the Thad Jean and Jason Jackson, the way that they finished,

00:47the way that they faced off the talking,

00:50and we have been sitting down with these fighters behind the scenes,

00:54particularly myself, because we need them to understand

00:57this is kind of a line-in-the-sand type of year for the PFL,

01:00five, six, seven years in.

01:02But we knew that if we wanted this to be a legitimate 12-month-a-year company,

01:07that the fighters have to buy in, too.

01:09And they actually have.

01:10I sat down with Thad Jean two days ago for some future stuff that we are doing.

01:14This kid is exactly, Scott, who we should be putting all of our backing into.

01:19He's young.

01:20He's hungry.

01:21He looks great.

01:22He's got a following.

01:23And I think that MMA fans, when they look at certain fighters,

01:26the natural thing to do, because they know so much,

01:29is let's have a negative take on it.

01:31Instead of saying, man, we've got a dynamic matchup here.

01:34We've got two guys.

01:35One's an OG.

01:37One's a young guy.

01:38Both think they're still in their pride.

01:40I love Jason Jackson.

01:41He still believes he should be the guy to beat,

01:44the name to beat in this welterweight division.

01:47And then the flip side, you have Storley,

01:49who I think is going to win that matchup.

01:51And he's a wrestler.

01:52He's a guy that can take you down and also finish you.

01:55But the big storyline guy that we had,

01:57starting with that first week,

01:59heading into the rest of the four weeks,

02:01was the finishes.

02:01And I felt like the fighters understood,

02:04if I finish, if I'm entertaining,

02:07then coach and his crew, meaning myself,

02:10we can now push you to the moon.

02:12And so we had 21 finishes out of 32 fights.

02:15That's unheard of.

02:16That's a ridiculous percentage.

02:18And I think those guys in that group

02:20will do it again June 12th in Nashville, Tennessee.

02:24And that should be a great tournament.

02:26I like Jackson.

02:27And I like Storley, like you talked about,

02:28the veterans in there.

02:29That gene's been great.

02:30He had a great performance,

02:31but you're not going to catch the vet

02:32when you just had the finish right in front of him.

02:34So we'll see if he can, you know,

02:36have the same kind of performance against Jackson.

02:38But the ice-kicking machine is a tough dude

02:39to do that against.

02:40We'll see.

02:41You also have the featherweights.

02:42You have Jesus Pinedo versus Gabriel Braga

02:44after they got through Borch.

02:46Pinedo beat Borch and Braga beat Dupras.

02:48And then Javi Bulov versus Kim Tae-un-kyun.

02:52You had Tae-un-kyun beat Nathan Kelly

02:54and Mobley beat Kennedy there

02:57in their matchups in the first round.

02:59So now they'll face off against each other.

03:01That Pinedo-Braga matchup,

03:03that's going to be one that, you know,

03:04you could definitely see in the finals

03:05if the brackets had worked out differently, I think.

03:10You're absolutely right.

03:11And the one thing about this particular division

03:14is if we were sitting back,

03:16and the one thing that in my new role

03:19is I'm going to be completely candid, honest, 1,000%.

03:22And you look at certain fighters,

03:24you say, hey, may the best man win.

03:26But if we're being honest,

03:27and I've told Don and everybody

03:29that we have some incredible leaders,

03:31but I said, we need to buy into these young guys

03:34and still have the OGs at times.

03:38And you just said some names

03:39that we didn't expect them to win.

03:41But if I want to be behind certain,

03:43I want a guy who's 22 to 25,

03:45just getting into his prime,

03:46and keep them as a PFL name.

03:49But then if you're going to give me a matchup,

03:51that's Pinedo and Braga.

03:52And I talked to Pinedo before his matchup.

03:54He had some time off.

03:56A lot of these guys had some significant time off.

03:58So you never know if cage rush is going to be an issue,

04:02if they lose a step,

04:04if their quickness is not where it needs to be.

04:06Pinedo, Braga, not an issue.

04:10Mowgli, everybody said,

04:11well, he's not the guy that had that knockout four years ago.

04:15Well, guess what?

04:16Maybe he still is.

04:18And so this is an opportunity in June,

04:20and now in August for this particular weight class

04:23to really elevate.

04:25Because once we get past August,

04:26now we start to think about next year's tournament.

04:29But also I tell people this whenever I get asked.

04:32This isn't just about the tournament, Scott.

04:34This is about if you lose,

04:35how did you look so you can get another fight or two

04:39and still fight three times.

04:41That's been something that most people overlook.

04:43We've got names on these cards in June

04:45that just fought in April.

04:46Because you've got to have more than two or four fights.

04:49You've got to have eight to ten fights.

04:51So to me, it's really cool to see these fighters understand

04:54I've got to go out there and look great,

04:56even if I lose to a former champion like Pinedo

04:59or to a guy like Braga.

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