Rory MacDonald vs. Ray Cooper III among newly-announced PFL playoff semifinal matchups

A welterweight matchup pitting Rory MacDonald vs. Ray Cooper III is among the newly-announced PFL season three playoff semifinal matchups.

PFL announced the complete list of its season three semifinal bouts this week on its social media, with three events scheduled to take place on August 13, August 19, and August 27.

https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1417541140501471234

PFL 7, August 13 

Welterweight bout: Joao Zeferino vs. Magomed Magomedkerimov
Welterweight bout: Rory MacDonald vs. Ray Cooper III
Lightweight bout: Loik Rahdzabov vs. Alex Martinez
Lightweight bout: Clay Collard vs. Raush Manfio

PFL 8, August 19

Women’s lightweight bout: Larissa Pacheco vs. Taylor Guardado
Women’s lightweight bout: Kayla Harrison vs. Genah Fabian
Heavyweight bout: Bruno Cappelozza vs. Jamelle Jones
Heavyweight bout: Denis Goltsov vs. Ante Delija

PFL 9, August 27

Featherweight bout: Brendan Loughnane vs. Movlid Khaybulaev
Featherweight bout: Chris Wade vs. Bubba Jenkins
Light heavyweight bout: Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Emiliano Sordi
Light heavyweight bout: Cezar Ferreira vs. Marthin Hamlet

There are a number of extremely intriguing fights among those that were announced, but the most notable of all of them is likely the MacDonald vs. Cooper III fight at 170lbs. MacDonald is a former UFC welterweight title challenger and a former Bellator welterweight champion who scored a submission win over Curtis Millender, before dropping a controversial split decision to Gleison Tibau in his last fight. As for Cooper III, he won last season’s welterweight tournament and won both of his fights in this season’s tournament to get back to the playoffs. This should be a very interesting matchup and the winner will take on the victor of the night’s other welterweight semifinal between Joao Zeferino and Magomed Magomedkerimov, who won the PFL welterweight tournament in the first season.

Who do you think wins the PFL welterweight semifinal between Rory MacDonald and Ray Cooper III, and what do you think about these other newly-announced matchups?