Dana White encouraged promoters to pick up Brendan Loughnane after he decided to pass up on signing Loughnane, and the Professional Fighters League took him up on that offer. White declined to sign Loughnane following what he deemed to be an ill-advised takedown attempt in the winding seconds of Loughnane’s bout on the season premiere of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. Naturally, Loughnane was devastated by White’s decision, but he has now moved on to sign with the PFL. The decision came down to the perfect balance between competition and finance:
“I had a bit of time off to let the dust settle with everything that went on (after the Contender Series),” Loughnane told MMA Junkie. “PFL offered probably the highest level of competition and also really good money. I’m their only English fighter and they were like, ‘Look, we’ll really get behind you. We’ll push you in that market.’
“It was a thought-out decision. There were a lot of good choices on the table. I wanted all my fights to be in the States after that Las Vegas one – I really enjoyed that. Fighting in Vegas was always my dream and I was like, ‘(Expletive), I can get my dream. I can get paid top money, and I can fight for a promotion that’s Stateside, and they’re really gonna put marketing into me.’
“Also, PFL was on the table before that (Contender Series) fight with the UFC. At the time I told them, ‘This is my dream and I’m going to go for it.’ And they were just so nice about it and were like, ‘Yes, go for it!’ When it didn’t work out, they came back to me and gave me an even better offer. It was a total no-brainer for me.”
As for Loughnane’s promotional debut, the next season of the $1 million featherweight season does not begin untili May of next year, but he already has plans for keeping busy in the meantime:
“These guys will give me two (non-tournament) fights before the end of this year, and there’s only five months of the year left,” he said. “And then next year, I’ll have five fights, so you can’t really complain with the numbers that they’re giving.”
Do you believe Brendan Loughnane made the right decision to sign with PFL?
