Logan Storley taps into his violent side ahead of PFL Sioux Falls headliner

The Professional Fighters League on Saturday will return to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and bring perhaps its top star from the area long for the ride.

Former interim Bellator MMA champion and PFL tournament finalist Logan Storley takes on Florim Zendeli in the PFL Sioux Falls main event at the Sanford Pentagon. Storley fell short in his most recent outing, as he dropped a five-round unanimous decision to Thad Jean in the 2025 PFL World Tournament welterweight final on Aug. 1. He has spent his time since the setback focusing on the more violent side of his personality while rediscovering his passion and focus.

“It was one of those things where we got close. We made some little mistakes during the fight, but [Jean] is a great competitor,” Storley told Sherdog.com. “He’s a great fighter, and we went back to the drawing board. This is the longest break I think I’ve had in a while, because I had two tournaments back-to-back, so we took a little time off and then me [and my] coaches really did a lot of technical work in the offseason. That was really fun to improve on things that maybe we haven’t had time for because we were just fight after fight, and we haven’t had time during the grind.

Among those who had an active hand in the process: former Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Robbie Lawler.

“We worked on a lot of adding tools and getting better at things that we were great at, but Robbie and I worked on opening my eyes more to see what I can do. ‘How can we hurt people more?’ We spent a lot of time doing things like that.”

With nine months in between appearances, Storley views the time away as beneficial.

A world class welterweight clash headlines PFL Sioux Falls: Tune in Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

“I think, for me, it was to take a step back and realize [that] I started to miss it again,” he said. “I know a lot of fighters during the tournament, where it was fight after fight, and there’s the thought of, ‘I want to get this done and we got to go do this and then you kind of get this break.’ Then you realize how much you miss it and what fighting really means to you. I think I got to enjoy the time off with my family and friends. I got to enjoy my time to improve, but I also got to miss fighting and really appreciate it. This has obviously changed my life for the better, and it was nice to take some time to reflect.”