Carlos Leal absolutely dominates Ray Cooper III at PFL 3
The Professional Fighters League returns to us tonight, May 6, 2022, for PFL 3 – 2022, going down live from the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Headlining the event is two-time Olympic gold medalist (Judo) and two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison, who aims to take out six-time Sambo world champion Marina Mokhnatkina.
Two-time PFL welterweight champion Ray Cooper III co-headlined the event tonight opposing former LFA champion Carlos Leal, who’s already gone 2-0 this year in PFL Challenger Series.
Continue reading to see how this epic catchweight contest went down:
Click here for PFL 3 results
Official Result: Carlos Leal def. Ray Cooper III via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 29-27)
Cooper starts the bout with a flurry of punches before immediately shooting on a takedown, though Leal is able to stuff it. Cooper actually strains himself in attempt to secure a takedown throughout the entirety of round one, but is unable to.
Leal is also looking very good in the striking exchanges.
Cooper gets battered throughout round two, as Leal catches him with a combination that stuns him pretty badly. He then gets out-scrambled, ending up on bottom turtle position eating shots.
Leal then drops Cooper with a leg kick later on in the round, and is really having an incredible performance tonight against a two-time PFL champion.
Cooper starts to come alive with about one minute left in the third and final round, as he throws and lands a number of hard punches. However, it was too little too late, as he was already down on the scorecards.
Leal really looked incredible tonight, as he improved his record to 17-3 with a win over one of PFL’s best fighters.
One has to think, Cooper may have came into this fight injured. He did merely nothing the first two rounds, most of the third, and honestly, he didn’t really look like he wanted to be there tonight. Not to mention, he did weigh in over five lbs over the welterweight limit (176.4 lbs), making this a catchweight bout.
But, that could be attributed to all the experience Leal has gotten since Cooper’s last fight as well.
On the contrary, we may have a new contender in PFL’s welterweight division.
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