How Jason Jackson and Thad Jean Made It to the PFL Nashville Fight Card

A welterweight clash between Jason Jackson and Thad Jean tops the bill of the Professional Fighters League’s World Tournament semifinals on June 12 at Municipal Auditorium.

The winner advances to the finals with a $500,000 bonus check on the line.

While the pair’s home gyms are just miles apart from each other in South Florida, they’ve taken vastly different routes to reach June’s main event in Nashville.

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Jackson is a veteran of the MMA landscape , a former Bellator champion with 24 professional bouts. He was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica and moved to Florida at the age of 12, where his love for mixed martial arts was founded.

Soon after graduating high school, Jackson was sleeping on his aunt’s floor when the glow of the television caught his eye, showing an ad for Chuck Lidell vs. Quinton Jackson, which instantly hooked Jackson and left him envisioning a future in the cage.

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“My jaw just dropped when I saw it and I was like, that's what I want to do," Jackson said. "I slept on a lot of floors during those times to be where I'm at right now, to be telling this story.”

In 2015, Jackson joined The Ultimate Fighter, fighting with the “Blackzilians” mixed martial arts team, where he was able to train alongside veteran and up and coming UFC fighters such as Eddie Alvarez, Vitor Belfort and Alistair Overeem. Jackson drove over an hour north from Miami to Deerfield Beach, often sleeping under the ring to save money as he trained in pursuit of a world title.

“They say birds of a feather flock together. You can't hang around crows if you want to fly with the eagles," Jackson said. "So I kind of kept that in my mind and just said, if every day I get up and grind and grind, something will happen. Greatness will happen, because I'm destined.”

After achieving world title status in November 2023, the crowning moment of his career, Jackson traveled to Ireland to defend his belt, where visa issues resulted in his arrival just days before the fight . Jackson said he was promised a title shot ahead of that bout, a shot which never manifested, leaving him with all the motivation necessary heading into June’s semifinal against Jean.

“They put me in the tournament for me to earn my way back to getting the title shot that I deserve," Jackson said. "And then this guy, Thad Jean, telling me that I'm not hungry. I had to take a back seat to get back to something that I should've had already. And you're going to say I'm not hungry because you're younger than me? You're crazy.”

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How Thad Jean's MMA career started

Jean, 26, rapidly ascended toward his first-ever PFL main event. He is 9-0, with the last five coming under the PFL banner to help him secure his spot in the world tournament.

Jean’s MMA career began when his football career ended because of injury when a sibling’s friend suggested he consider fighting. Six months after he began training, Jean made his amateur debut. The feeling following his first victory confirmed to Jean he was walking down the right path.

“Winning when it's just you versus someone else, it's a crazy feeling. Amazing feeling …" Jean said. "I was addicted. That hooked me completely, I was like, 'Yeah, this is what I want to do.'”

After four professional bouts, Jean entered the PFL’s Challenger Series in 2023, where he won a PFL contract, establishing himself as one of the organization’s young stars. Still fresh on the PFL scene, Jean was named an alternate for the welterweight tournament, but an injury to Florim Zendeli, led to Jean stepping in with a chance to claim a title early in his career .

“(Jackson is) a great fighter, but I don't think he's faced anyone quite like me yet," Jean said. "Even though he has so many fights, I don't think he's truly faced anybody like me, like a true dog. I'm a real soldier. You're going to really have to beat me to stop me.”

Harrison Campbell covers combat sports for The Tennessean and high school sports for The Daily Herald. Email him at hcampbell@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @hccamp .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Jason Jackson and Thad Jean reached PFL Nashville fight card