Sean O’Connell thinks PFL’s mainstays are being heavily underestimated.
Heading into its third season, PFL has signed notable names such as former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, former Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald and former UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum.
A focal point heading into the year has been about their quests to add more gold to their collections, but O’Connell – a PFL play-by-play commentator and 2018 light heavyweight champion – thinks the likes of reigning tournament winners Natan Schulte and Ray Cooper III aren’t being talked about enough.
“Natan Schulte at 155 pounds has shown unbelievable resilience. He has shown a completely well rounded skillset. He’s won back-to-back titles, two million-dollar tournaments, and everyone is talking about Anthony Pettis,” O’Connell told MMA Junkie. “That’s crazy, because Natan Schulte is a back-to-back champion. The same thing at 170 pounds: We have Season 1 champ Magomed Magomedkerimov, our Season 2 champ Ray Cooper, (and) those two guys fought each other in the Season 1 championship. So just sustained excellence from those individuals at 170 pounds, but everyone is talking about the debut for Rory MacDonald.
“So it’s really fascinating, because our champions, even dominant champions, are being overlooked because of the name value of other guys. That, to me, provides a really interesting dynamic for our storytelling obviously, but when we see eventual matchups between Natan Schulte and Anthony Pettis, how mad is Natan Schulte that the other guy is getting all the attention? Or if we see Ray Cooper or Magomed Magomedkerimov fight against Rory MacDonald, are we gonna see – this is a guy in Rory MacDonald who’s been at the top of the heap at 170 for a decade, or are we seeing what I think might happen, one of these other two kind of taking their place at the top of the mountain and getting more attention because they finally beat a name everybody in the mixed martial arts world recognizes as being a top guy.”
While O’Connell understands the value that big names like Pettis, MacDonald and Werdum bring to the promotion, he thinks it won’t be that easy for them to outlast the competition in their brackets.
“I love that the free agent signings are bringing so much attention to what we’re doing in PFL Season 3,” O’Connell added. “But the crazy thing about it is, I don’t know that I’m confident that any of those three big free agents are like shoe-ins for a championship appearance.”
Sean O’Connell: Big PFL free agent signings aren’t shoe-ins to win it all