Vassell Moves on From Bader Rematch, Hopes to Represent Bellator Brand at PFL 1

It will be a new beginning of sorts for Linton Vassell on Thursday night.

The 40-year-old Englishman will make his Professional Fighters League debut at the organization’s first regular season event of 2024 when he meets Denis Goltsov in a featured heavyweight bout at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas.

It wasn’t initially the matchup “Big Swarm” had in mind, but things changed when Ryan Bader suffered a first-round knockout loss to Renan Ferreira at PFL vs. Bellator on Feb. 24. Instead, Vassell will take part in the PFL season.

“I actually thought I would be fighting him [Bader] next. But he lost,” Vassell said during a media call. “… Who wouldn’t want to be in the tournament where you get a belt, you get money and you get to fight the champion at the end? I don’t think the Bader fight will happen now, to be honest. I’m on a different road.”

While Vassell will be competing under the PFL banner, he stil considers himself a Bellator athlete at heart. He has fought for Bellator since 2013, challenging for light heavyweight gold against Bader before eventually moving up to the heavyweight division.

“Even though I’m on the PFL brand, I’m still from Bellator. I fought for Bellator for so long,” Vassell said. “I’m coming over now. I’m Bellator, I’m gonna come over and I’m gonna represent. It’s pride, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter what organization you’re from, you want to show that your organization is the best.”

Vassell enters the matchup against Goltsov on a five-bout winning streak, a run that includes first-round stoppages of Tim Johnson and Valentin Moldavsky in his last two outings. Goltsov, who came up short against Ferreira in the 2023 PFL final, is typically one of the favorites in the heavyweight field. However, Vassell plans on a similar outcome against “The Russian Bogatyr.”

“Same treatment. Not taking nothing away from him,” Vassell said. “[I] hit the 40 age and I just keep rolling. I think my last performance showed that I’m not stopping.”

If Vassell is able to make it through the PFL season, he’ll set his sights on the some of the big names in the promotion: Ferreira and Francis Ngannou, who has yet to make his promotional debut.

“Those are the super fights I think everyone wants, to be honest,” Vassell said. “To fight Ferreira and Ngannou and get paid some serious money, I think everyone would take that fight.”