Sadibou Sy scores huge upset over Rory MacDonald at PFL 6

The Professional Fighters League returns to us tonight, July 1, 2022, for PFL 6, going down live from the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Headlining the event is two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion, and two-time Olympic gold medalist (Judo) Kayla Harrison, who was initially slated against Julia Budd tonight, but as a result of an injury sustained during camp, now faces a true pioneer of the sport Kaitlin Young in the main event of the evening.

Co-headlining the event is former Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald, who faces a dangerous striker in Sadibou Sy. Both men are 1-0 thus far into the season, following defeat in their final bouts of 2021.

Continue reading to see how this welterweight bout went down:

Official Result: Sadibou Sy def. Rory MacDonald via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Aside from the first ten seconds of the bout, the initial three minutes is spent with MacDonald searching for a takedown up along the fence, but is unable to secure one. He goes for a couple sweeps, body locks, a clinch, single legs and double legs, none of which worked.

The final minute is spent at striking range with Sy getting his jab going.

More of the same happens in the second, as MacDonald is still in search of a takedown, but still unable to have any success in the area. He isn’t really approaching this fight with a well rounded gameplan, and plan A isn’t exactly working.

Nonetheless, he is controlling the action, and it could be 1-1 or 2-0 MacDonald going into the third.

MacDonald opens up the third a little differently than he did the first two, as he gets going with his striking. He lands a nice combo but immediately shoots on another takedown. He also spends a good portion of this round looking for the takedown, and even ends up on his back for a short period of time before getting up and again tying up with Sy.

Sadibou Sy is a perfect example of a fighters record doesn’t say anything about them; 10-6-2-1 (now 11-6-2-1) 19 fights, he won ten of them, and he gave an elite level former world champion that hard of a time tonight. Not to mention two 30-27 scorecards against him.

It wasn’t a dominant victory by any means, but honestly, he did do a little bit better of a job than MacDonald throughout.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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