Does the PFL have a new potential lightweight tournament entrant?
Among the notable production touches at PFL’s 2021 season finale on Wednesday night was a performance by rapper Wiz Khalifa. Heading into the promotion’s main card, Khalifa took the stage to deliver a PFL themed track, something promotion co-founder Donn Davis compared to the classic Monday Night Football theme song, as performed by Hank Williams Jr.
“I think the song is great and I’m excited to be performing it at the championship,” Khalifa told Maxim in a recent interview. “Getting to create this track with Sledgren was so special because it is something that will always be part of the PFL with my MMA family.”
Khalifa became an investor in the rebranded World Series of Fighting organization back in April of this year, with the promotion telling Insider.com that the rapper would “play an active role in continuing to shape the PFL brand for this generation’s sports fan.”
But could the celebrity musician’s involvement in mixed martial arts could go even further than his patronage and potential business insight? Khalifa has been training BJJ and muay thai for years now. And while he told Bleacher report back in 2018, that he wasn’t actively considering taking a real bout to test his skills, it sounds more and more like that kind of competitive idea is an itch he may end up looking to scratch.
“I’ve always been a boxing fan and when MMA started to become big, my cousins convinced me to start training in jiu-jitsu,” Wiz said. “That was about 5 years ago.”
“I love watching and [fighting is] definitely something I think about, but for now I’m happy as an owner. But you never know. I am always training so if the opportunity presents itself and is something that could be fun and good for everyone, I could see myself getting in the ring.”
And while it seems doubtful that fans would ever see Khalifa embark on a full blown combat sports career, the atmosphere for celebrities taking vanity fights has never been better. Jake & Logan Paul have carved out fascinating boxing careers, taking on celebrity opponents on PPV for what essentially end up looking like low-level club fights. The same has been less true of MMA lately, however, where the freak-fight heyday of the early 2000s now seems like a bit of a relic of the past. Who knows, though? Maybe PFL can find an opportunity bring it all back.