Rory MacDonald returns this May at PFL 3 opposing Brett Cooper
Former UFC title challenger, and former Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald returns to the PFL cage this spring opposing fellow Bellator veteran Brett Cooper.
This bout is to be held at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and will go down on May 6, 2022, at PFL 3.
The event is to be headlined by two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo, and two-time PFL lightweight champion Kayla Harrison, who faces six-time Sambo world champion Marina Mokhnatkina in the main event of the evening.
Rory MacDonald is one of the most skilled mixed martial arts fighters we’ve ever seen compete in this sport.
From his deep skillset and killer instinct at such a young age, I mean, he battered former multi-time WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit for ten-straight minutes at just 20 years of age. He did go on to lose the bout via TKO in round three, but the stoppage was controversial and we all knew we had a new prodigy rising into the limelight.
However, despite making it to the top of the division when we all knew he would, his career hasn’t quite panned out the way most of us had expected.
Heading into his UFC title shot against then champion Robbie Lawler, the last man to defeat him, he came in with a record of 18-2. Since then, he’s gone 4-6-1, which has come as a shock to most, if not all MMA fans.
Leaving the UFC on a two-fight losing streak, MacDonald submitted (rear naked choke) Paul Daley in his Bellator debut, before taking the title from Douglas Lima, one of the greatest Bellator talents ever.
However, a defeat to Gegard Mousasi would follow in a middleweight championship bout, before going to a lackluster draw with Jon Fitch in his first title defense. Most even believed Fitch won the bout, there was none of that killer instinct we’d once known MacDonald for.
He did defend his belt in his next outing against then undefeated Neiman Gracie, but lost the championship in his rematch to Lima. MacDonald has since gone 1-2 in PFL, defeating fellow UFC veteran Curtis Millender (rear naked choke), and dropping his last two fights to Gleison Tibau and 2021 PFL champion Ray Cooper III.
Let’s not get it mixed though, he’s not just handily losing to UFC washouts. That Tibau decision became one of the most controversial in the sports history. MacDonald won all three rounds of that contest, and there were also a number of other terrible calls in the PFL throughout last year.
It does however appear all the wars he’s been in have gotten to him. His first, and especially his second fight with Robbie Lawler, the first Douglas Lima fight, the beating he took from Mousasi and then Lima the second time as well, it makes sense. There’s only so much one man can take.
Nonetheless, MacDonald, coming in on a two-fight skid, now faces Brett Cooper, who comes in on a two-fight win streak, most recently winning his PFL debut last August at the same event MacDonald last fought at.
Cooper is a former ACA welterweight champion, and also challenged Alexander Shlemenko for the Bellator middleweight championship back in 2013. He also boasts wins over a number of UFC veterans, such as Joe Doerksen (TKO), Sergio Moraes (KO), Jason Von Flue (TKO), Rory Markham (TKO), Dan Cramer (TKO), and Kendall Grove (KO).
As you see, he stopped every last one of them with strikes.
Does Cooper continue his winning streak into 2022, or does MacDonald get back on track?
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