Ray Cooper III expected to dominate Rory MacDonald, turns focus to PFL finals rematch vs. Magomed Magomedkerimov

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The MMA community may have been surprised at the outcome of Friday’s 2021 PFL Playoffs 1 main event, but Ray Cooper III was not.

Cooper (23-7-1 MMA, 10-2-1 PFL) was matched up against Rory MacDonald in what promised to be a tough fight for both welterweight competitors who hoped to punch their ticket to the PFL finals to face Magomed Magomedkerimov.

However, at the conclusion of the fight, there was no doubt that Cooper did enough to win the fight, in fact, the only question was if a judge gave MacDonald a single round.

“(It was) Nothing I didn’t expect, I knew this was going to happen,” Cooper told MMA Junkie. “Nothing but respect for Rory. He’s a great competitor, awesome fighter.”

Perhaps the key to success on Friday evening was Cooper’s approach to the fight, as he didn’t allow the stage, the moment, or the opponent to get to him all week long. He simply approached the fight with the same mentality as he always does in a tournament format.

“He’s just another guy,” Cooper said. “He’s in my way of my main goal. This is a tournament style. This is not, ‘Oh, you’re fighting a big guy this fight, that’s your biggest fight.’ No, you have to focus on the fights after that too, but you still gotta be focused on the fight in front of you and that’s what I did. I focused on him, I got past it, and now I’m focused on the main, main goal, and that’s winning the championship.”

All three judges scored the contest 30-27 in favor of Cooper over MacDonald, giving him a clean sweep on the cards and advancing him to the finals to face Magomedkerimov, who defeated Sadibou Sy via unanimous decision on Friday.

Cooper will have a chance at revenge against Magomedkerimov, who defeated him in the 2018 tournament championship via second-round guillotine choke.

“I’m getting my rematch,” Cooper said. “It’s a totally different fight now, the way I’m gonna approach it, the way Magomed’s gonna approach it – we both know how we fight, but that last fight we fought, I was a little bit immature during the fight, but now, I know what he’s gonna do already. It’s no secret what he does. He’s gonna wrestle. Period. I’m ready.”

The 2021 PFL Playoff finals will take place Oct. 27 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.