Kenny Florian Praises Jesus Pinedo as the ‘Biggest Surprise’ of the 2023 PFL Season

Professional Fighters League analyst and commentator Kenny Florian is keen to watch how the featherweight and light heavyweight playoffs will play out.

Florian will watch the upcoming card on Aug. 4 from one of the best seats in the house as he will be cageside to commentate the clashes. The main event of the evening is a 145-bout affair between Jesus Pinedo and 2022 PFL Season runner-up Bubba Jenkins. While talking with Sherdog, Florian agreed Pinedo is the biggest surprise in the PFL this year as “El Mudo” scored a fantastic first-round knockout victory over 2022 titleholder Brendan Loughnane. According to Florian, Pinedo’s victory is proof of PFL raising the bar yearly in addition to the tournament’s unpredictability.

“He definitely is the biggest surprise of the 2023 season. I considered Brendan Loughnane, and l still consider him one of the best featherweights in the world. I think it shows that, first of all, the competition is getting better and better all the time. Also, it stresses the importance of being able to manage everything throughout a camp, right? It's like you have your opponents, but you also have to manage your training camps, your injuries and everything that happens outside of the cage. I don't want to take away from Pinedo's win, but you also have to consider the brutal schedule of the PFL, and that's why we talk about it being so difficult. You could be a great fighter, but if you have a bad day, if you have injuries, if you train too much, if you train too little, if you didn't get your training camp perfectly, you can lose. Pinedo is a fantastic fighter who is very motivated and very hungry, and he went out there and got it done in round one against Loughnane.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:25) Breaking down Bubba Jenkins vs. Jesus Pinedo
(02:07) Jenkins’ momentum
(03:34) Gabriel Braga vs. Chris Wade
(05:37) Why he doesn’t want to pick any winners
(06:11) Joshua Silveira vs. Ty Flores
(08:58) Discussing Flores’ path the playoffs
(10:01) Impa Kasanganay vs. Marthin Hamlet
(12:29) Shouting out some other fights to watch
(13:35) Outro