Thad Jean: ‘I’m Next Up’

Thad Jean made his presence known, felt and heard in the Professional Fighters League when he posted a decisive win in the PFL 2025 World Tournament. “The Silverback” made quick work of Mukhammed Berkhamov, as he ended their welterweight quarterfinal inside one round on April 3. It was the fifth first-round finish of his career and marked his fifth win under the PFL banner.

A PFL Challenger Series alum, Jean was once considered a diamond in the rough. Now, he looks like the company’s next homegrown star.

Dakota Ditcheva went from darling of the PFL Europe circuit to the organization’s global roster and captured the women’s flyweight title in 2024. Jean appears to have positioned himself for a similar climb. He will return to the stage when he faces former Bellator MMA champion Jason Jackson in a welterweight semifinal on June 12 in Nashville, Tennessee. Their initial face-to-face encounter featured shoves and a brief war of words.

“We were in a back-and-forth banter about our home countries,” Jean told Sherdog.com. “He didn’t like what I was saying, and he pushed me. I was like, ‘I don’t give a damn. I’m from South Florida.’ I was ready to slap, but I wanted to keep it cordial and professional. I knew I’d get my chance with him soon enough. I’m in his head. I love being in his head, and I’m living rent-free right now.”

Jackson in an interview with the PFL’s Jonathan Coachman claimed Jean was a fake representative of Haiti and indicated he was tired of seeing him face “unathletic white boys.” Jean believes the results will speak for themselves when the cage door locks behind them in a little less than a month.

“We’ll see who’s more athletic when it comes to the fight,” he said. “He doesn’t have the explosiveness or athleticism that I have, and I have youth on my side. I know I’m a smarter fighter in a cage than him. I lack nothing in comparison to what he lacks.”

The ability to draw a fighter of Jackson’s caliber into a game of mental warfare only proves to Jean that he has earned his stripes at this still-early stage of his career.

“It means my record is not a fluke,” he said. “He knows that I’m dangerous—more dangerous than he’s letting off. He knows that I’m dangerous, and he knows that I have no fear coming into this fight. He’s probably gotten into the heads of his former opponents, but again, I’m from South Florida. You have to grow up talking trash out the womb. Going against someone like him with such a great record on him, it’s great. He’s been there. He’s done what he’s had to do, but at the end of the day, God bless him. I appreciate what he’s doing, but everything he’s done is just to be added to his record.”

With more than half of his bouts having taken place in the PFL, Jean now has the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other young stars in the promotion. The PFL has already invested in the aforementioned Ditcheva and Paul Hughes, and Jean seems poised to stand alongside them.

“Their investment in me means I’m next up,” he said. “It means Jason Jackson is getting ready to pass the baton to me. That’s what this fight is going to be—him passing the baton. If he’s the face now, I’m the face tomorrow, and I will be the face that takes the PFL to another level in the MMA world. Casual fans will know the PFL because of me. People will start talking about wanting to be in the PFL to become a superstar. Because of me, fighters won’t just want to go to the UFC anymore.”