Thad Jean is the 2025 PFL welterweight tournament champion and is vying for the lineal 170-pound title this weekend, but also has his sights on other gold in the future. ‘The Silverback’ will clash with Shamil Musaev at PFL Washington on July 25th. At the PFL Summer Series press event in late June, Dan Hardy referenced the size of Thad Jean and how a middleweight move seemed imminent. When touching on if the cut down to welterweight is a cumbersome one, Thad Jean said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“It’s not too bad, honestly. That’s why I said once I hit 30, once you get to that age where weight cut starts to get a little bit harder. I’m constantly just in the gym, I’m constantly working, constantly just making sure that I’m in tip-top shape. When it comes to that, I’m not really eating the best all the time. So, I start to gain a bit of the weight, but I still look like I’m in shape. So, as I start to cut and start cutting out all the crazy calories, crazy carbs, that’s when I really start to look like a welterweight again.”

“So, I don’t want to put too much crazy pressure on my kidneys when it comes to then. So, I say 30, but depending on how it looks, like I say, I chase names. I want to chase names. After I take out Shamil Musaev, who else in the welterweight division do I take out? I want to go get; maybe I get that double champ [status]. Maybe I go [up to] 185 [pounds], grab that belt, and then come back down. We’ll see.”

Thad Jean thinks a Shamil musaev win would have people asking “Who else is there for Thad?”

In terms of assessing the tournament title versus the lineal title, many within mixed martial arts see a pronounced distinction between those things, as some fighters tout the tournament title as being a more meaningful distinction. When asked for his own personal thoughts on that comparison binary between tournament crowns versus divisional belts in MMA, Thad Jean quipped [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“I think when it comes to that, yeah, the tournament title was definitely I think a little bit more rewarding. Yeah, when it comes to that because of the strenuous schedule of the three fights within a short amount of time or four fights, depending on what type of tournament it was. Being able to win that, depending on you, did you get an injury in that first fight? Are you ignoring the injury now you’re going into the second fight? Are you getting another injury ignoring that as well and then going into the third fight.”

“Definitely it was a really big push and definitely getting that title at the end it was a big sigh of relief like thank God that paid off. I’m finally done with this. I’m finally the tournament champion. At the same time, I would love to do another tournament, because of that schedule because it was like I know what’s next. I know when I’m going to fight. I beat this guy. Okay, I go against this guy next. It was a quick turnaround. It was beautiful. You knew what you were doing. It was really nice that way. You knew what you had ahead on the schedule.”

When it was mentioned how his ideal outcome here in DC would also fulfill the idea of filling out his mantle that much more, Thad Jean said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“Exactly. So, yeah, getting lineal title is also great as well because now it’s more of, yeah, I was a tournament champion, but now I’m the champion of this entire weight class. There’s a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 underneath me. Being able to be the top dog within that, champion within that weight class, within this weight class is also like a good rewarding thing. Like yeah you have to come see me now. You have to come to me and you have to get to me to get this title. You have to come to me to touch the number one belt or the number one seed.”

Shamil Musaev has more than double the fights that ‘The Silverback’ has and was able to halt mutual opponent Logan Storley inside the distance when Musaev fought the former interim Bellator MMA champ. When offering up his thoughts on this Musaev matchup set for Saturday, Thad Jean stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“I think he’s a fantastic opponent. I think he’s the best opponent for me at this moment in my career because he knocked out Logan Storley and won the tournament a year prior to mine. So, who else should I be going against? You know, I feel like Shamil Musaev is definitely someone who, as he says, the silent assassin. He’s not; you want to see him. He’s not all flashy. He’s not all big and he’s not into the big talking and stuff like that.”

“Comes to culture. I guess that’s like really what their culture is, and he’s really respectful in that aspect. But when it comes to the cage, he’s definitely someone to look out for. I’m definitely taking it all into account that his whole MMA game is definitely top quality. It’s up there. I want to make sure that once people see that I can beat someone like Shamil Musaev, then hey, who else is there for him? Who else is there for Thad?”