‘Trippy’ – Tonight at PFL 3 Shields fights son of man he fought twice

The Professional Fighters League has reimagined mixed martial arts.

The 2018 season starts off with twelve fighters in each division. Getting into the single elimination tournament of 8 is based upon points accumulated in two preliminary fights. A win earns three points, and a finish earns additional points (3 for a Round 1 finish, 2 for a Round 2 finish, and 1 for a Round 3 finish). The eight fighters with the most points move into the tournament, seeded by points. Tournament winner makes $1,000,000.

The 12 welterweight fighters are Paul Bradley, Ray Cooper III, Magomed Kerimov, Pavlo Kusch, Abubakar Nurmagomedov, Jake Shields, Rick Story, Herman Terrado, Bojan Velickovic, Yuri Villefort, Jonatan Westin, and Joao Zeferin. On Thursday night the 39-year-old Shields fights Cooper, and during a recent discussion with Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting he talked about the PFL playoff system.

I think it’s interesting, said Shields. It’s the first time this has been utilized, so we’ll see how it goes. You’ve got to kind of go a couple of rounds, go through the tournament and see how it plays out before I can really give it my full assessment. So far I’m excited about it. It’s a cool thing they’re doing. There’s no politics. We know exactly what we need to do. If you want better seeding, you’ve got to get finishes.

I’m pretty sure if you win both fights, no matter what you get into the tournament, but you can jump in, get a first-round finish, it gets you six points. It’s an interesting system and I love it that they’re doing it.

Shields has been fighting since ever since. He is the final Rumble on the Rock welterweight champion, the only Elite XC welterweight champion, a former Strikeforce middleweight champion, and a former Shooto welterweight champion. Shields won the final title in a rematch with Ray ‘Braddah’ Cooper in 2004. Cooper won the first fight via Majority Decision in 2004. Thursday night at PFL 3, Shields fights Cooper’s son and namesake Ray ‘Braddah’ Cooper III.

It’s trippy,” said Shields accurately. “As far as I know I don’t know anyone that’s done that. I’m sure people probably have, but I personally don’t know anyone that’s fought someone’s kid. It’s kind of weird, they told me you’re fighting Ray Cooper and I was like, ‘Ray Cooper, I fought a Ray Cooper in Hawaii.’ I went and looked him up and sure enough it was the son of the Ray Cooper I fought.

It was definitely interesting, not sure what to make of it. I have respect for his father, don’t really know him, but obviously respect most fighters so it’s an interesting scenario, but I plan on going out there and doing what I do and putting him away.

So if he wins the million dollars does that mean he wants to retire, or more wants to do it again the next season.

Luckily, I’ve already made a little money in this sport. Far from rich, but not broke either. Made some good investments, said Shields. But I mean a million dollars is still a million dollars, so of course I want to win that.

Right now my only focus is on getting through this long tournament and hopefully I’ll win this and reevaluate from there. Have no idea if I’m going to want to retire or if I want to keep fighting, I just need to focus on getting through this right now.