A Gladiator’s Heart

Jay-Jay Wilson grew up on the streets of New Zealand, where he adapted to a life of chaos. Now a successful mixed martial artist, the 27-year-old Kiwi will take the next step in his progression when he meets Mads Burnell in a Professional Fighters League lightweight quarterfinal and helps anchor PFL 2025 World Tournament 3 on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. When opportunity knocked, Wilson answered.

Inactivity could pose some problems for the Bellator MMA veteran, as Wilson has not fought since he took a unanimous decision from Mansour Barnaoui at Bellator 299 in September 2023. Nevertheless, he sounds like a man who has prepared himself to brawl. Wilson favors the current PFL setup to the regular-season points-based system that had come to define the company.

“I prefer this tournament format; it’s a better format,” Wilson told Sherdog.com. “I don’t want to go out there and win and then have to wonder if I’ll advance or not. I think the winner should always move on and the loser should always go home. It’s that way in wrestling and jiu-jitsu. If you lose, you go home. Get out of here, you lost. I love this format. It’s how combat sports should be. A winner advances. A loser goes home.”

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+.

In the PFL’s previous iteration, winning fighters were awarded points depending on the time of a finish or a decision, causing many participants to chase the quickest finish possible without showing all their skills. Wilson does not plan to change his approach now that points are no longer involved, owing to his reputation as a fighter who looks to make an emphatic statement every time he steps in the cage.

“I don’t care about the rule set, no matter what I’m told. I don’t pay attention. I just go out there and finish fights,” he said. “You can tell me the rules and I’ll go and fight, but I’m always going for the finish. You can take the rules out of it. I’d fight in the street if I needed to. I’m just always ready to fight. For the regular season-style, I think the circumstances were a bit wild at times, but it did change some fights, as well. I definitely saw people come out and try to get a finish in the first round, but then they stalled out.”

Wilson did not mince words when discussing his approach to every fight in his career. He carries the same mentality for every opponent.

“I get in there, and I just think I am going to kill this guy,” Wilson said. “That’s it. I don’t look at it as I’m going in there for sport. To me, it’s life or death. I can die in that cage, and I’m going to go home to my family. I’m going home. He’s not. When they lock that door, I’m not going in there to compete. I’m going in to f---ing kill you. I try to finish by any means possible. That’s my mindset.”

Burnell follows a similar credo as someone who wants to test himself against elite opposition in order to see how he stacks up with the best of the best.

“He’s a fighter; he’s not a competitor,” Wilson said. “We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to put on a fight. The crowd is going to be going crazy. We’re going to be standing in front of each other banging and talking s--- to each other. It’s going to be a fight. It’s a fight for the fans to get excited for. It’s going to be the ‘Fight of the Night,’ and I’m guaranteeing a finish.”

Because he has not suited up in well over a year, Wilson believes he enters the tournament flying under the radar.

“Yeah, 100%, I’m being overlooked,” he said. “Even in my last fight, I was a massive underdog. Everyone looked down upon me, but I’m used to it. I like to put myself in situations where people doubt me, and I like to prove them wrong.”