2022 PFL featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane is all business in the lead-up to his fight on June 8th against Jesus Pinedo. Loughnane feels on top of his game heading into the fight,
“There’s no stress from me here, it’s all confidence. I really don’t feel the pressure, if I did I would tell you, it doesn’t feel stressful to me. Even the million-dollar night, everyone was like ‘You’re not worried if you don’t win?’ I’m like ‘no’ because I’m going to win.”
Admittedly, he doesn’t know much about his upcoming opponent and has focused on himself in the lead-up to this fight.
“I know he’s young, he’s hungry, and he wants what I got.”
Brendan’s training for the camp has been influenced by former UFC fighter Ross Pearson, who will also appear in his corner on fight night. Pearson formerly coached Loughnane on TUF: The Smashes back in 2012.
Loughnane’s Future
When asked about moving up weight classes Brendan replied, “Why not, what else is there to do?”, but seemed to have more interest in a different path.
Loughnane is happy with the recent signings of Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul, and thinks it will help change the industry.
“I wanna be on the Francis undercard for sure. How many eyes are gonna watch that, especially if Jake’s on it too? I would love to be the third in line on that card and I think the whole world would be tuned in.”
The PFL Super Fight division is where Paul and Ngannou will fight for the PFL, and Loughnane plans to do the same.
“I wanna make it known that I would like to be a two-time champion and then move on to that series. That would be the goal.”
Loughnane also says a boxing match could be in his near future, however, the focus is on winning this year’s championship.
Brendan Loughnane Talks About Fighting in the PFL
Loughnane talked about the hardest part of fighting in the PFL.
“It’s the turnarounds, it’s the weight cuts, it’s knowing you have an opponent for several months. There’s no relief, no mental release. It took over my brain, my life, this is all I do.”
While this may seem stressful, it’s something Loughnane says he’ll miss when it’s done.
“It’s wild, I embrace it. I’ll miss it when it’s done. I complain about it now but it’s a rollercoaster for sure.”
Two Time Champion
The difficulty it takes to become a two-time PFL champion is something Loughnane feels is underappreciated.
“To be a two-time PFL champion you have to win 8 fights consecutively. There’s only a certain amount of people on planet Earth that can do that at this level. To get two belts would mean you’ve gone through that ringer twice and came out the other end. As PFL grows, people are gonna learn how hard it is to actually do and it will make it the most respected belt in combat sports.”
Brendan Loughnane faces Jesus Pinedo on Thursday, June 8th at PFL 4. Loughnane expects to continue to bring “excitement” to the cage when he fights. Watch PFL 4 live on ESPN and ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Watch Brendan’s full media day via Sherdog.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
