Chris Wade says accepting trilogy fight with Bubba Jenkins was a 'no brainer'

Bubba Jenkins and Chris Wade are no strangers to fighting each other. They've fought twice before, with each of the men holding a win over the other. As the fight game and their careers have progressed, so has the bad blood between them.

So when both men didn't advance to the PFL Finals, it made perfect sense to matchmakers, fans and the media, to have them fight again at the end of the year in a showcase bout. And, according to Wade, it make perfect sense for him too.

"I didn’t expect that we were gonna fight again this season but basically, as soon as I got home from the last fight there were some stuff being thrown or posted on the internet I was tagged in and I kinda got the sense that he was trying to fan the flames for a fight," Wade told FanSided MMA after the fight was announced. "I was like let’s do it. Why not, right? We’re fighters. We may as well. We’re gonna get paid. So for me, it was like a no-brainer. But that was when I first started figuring out that we might fight was like the week after we got back after he threw a
couple of posts up…I was like okay, maybe they’ll run with this."

And run with it, they did. Jenkins and Wade will be the third fight of the night. With Wade winning the first fight, and Jenkins winning the second, the score is even and this trilogy holds more weight than an average showcase bout.

"I feel like this is the opportunity for somebody to kind of like have bragging rights over the other person," he said. "I know the fight that we last had, the most recent one is the one that he won but I don’t, you know- we’re still one/one. It’s a combination of things why I
wanna fight with him. Obviously, everybody knows that we don’t like each other so that helps. I also love to compete. You know, I love to fight. I feel like I’ve been fighting well as of late so I’m excited to get back in there and keep improving on things."

When it comes to getting into the smart cage with someone, Wade says he prefers to fight someone he isn't friendly with because he thinks it a better fight.

"You have to make sure you don’t let yourself get out of hand because if you get sloppy in there because of emotions, it could be bad," he said. "It’s important to keep calm with someone I don’t like. I think it’s better for everybody. It’s better for the fans. You know, fans like the animosity. They like the talk. The back and forth and the drama. I prefer to not like the person."

With that kind of motivation something Wade likes, it seems it will be Jenkins over and since that's the only PFL fighter he has an issue with.

"There’s really not too many guys in the league where we’re at in the PFL that I don’t like. So he's it," he laughed. "Even Brendan [Loughnane] I like. I don’t know, we only fought the one time but I always had respect for him. I always thought he was a high-level fighter and I talked to him a little bit here and there since we’ve competed. I’m not saying we’re friends or anything like that but, I definitely respect the guy. So it’s really just me and Bubba that don’t get along right now in the weight class."

Jenkins and Wade will settle the score on the undercard of the PFL Finals which take place on Friday, Nov. 24 in Washington D.C. The entire card will air on ESPN+ with the main card being an ESPN+ PPV event.