PFL x Bellator: Champs: Ray Cooper III vs. Jason Jackson Prediction, Odds, and Picks (Feb 24)
- Ray Cooper III stepped in as a replacement for the injured PFL Welterweight champ Magomed Magomedkerimov.
- This is going to be a catchweight fight because Cooper is over the welterweight limit.
- Jason Jackson is the only man who defeated Bellator’s welterweight legend Yaroslav Amosov.
Ray Cooper III vs. Jason Jackson is a fight of the PFL vs. Bellator: Champs, which will take place on Saturday, February 24, 2024, in Saudi Arabia.
Originally, the Bellator Welterweight champion Jason Jackson was meant to fight Magomed Magomedkerimov, the winner of PFL’s tournament. However, the Dagestani fighter got injured in mid-January, so Ray Cooper III stepped in on a one-month notice.
How to Watch
- When: Saturday, February 24, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. ET
- Where: Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- How to Watch: ESPN+ PPV and DAZN
Odds
Fighter | Odds |
---|---|
Ray Cooper III | |
Jason Jackson |
Fight Preview
Ray Cooper III is a PFL millionaire who won the $1M prize for winning the 2019 Welterweight tournament, as well as another $1M for winning it in 2021. On the road to his second PFL title, he defeated Magomedkerimov, a fighter who won last year’s championship and who was originally meant to fight at the PFL x Bellator: Champs event.
Last year, Cooper wanted to give it a go in the Middleweight division, but his journey was stopped by Derek Brunson who beat him by unanimous decision. What’s interesting is that even though he moved up a weight class, he still missed the weight, weighing in at 186.8 pounds.
As he stepped in on short notice to fight at PFL x Bellator: Champs, the organizers decided to make his fight with Jason Jackson a catchweight match (up to 182 pounds).
He’s bigger than he’s supposed to be, meaning that he’ll probably be sluggish in the cage. But even if he was in his best shape, we’d still expect him to struggle against Jackson.
READ ALSO: PFL x Bellator: Champs: Renan Ferreira vs. Ryan Bader Prediction, Odds, and Picks (Feb 24)
The thing is that the Bellator champ is a fast and agile fighter with incredible stamina. This guy lands a huge volume of strikes, which sometimes can be incredibly devastating.
The best example of this is the fight with one of the real legends of Bellator Yaroslav Amosov whom he KO-ed last November – it was the first-ever loss for the Ukrainian fighter.
Ray Cooper III vs. Jason Jackson Prediction
Jason Jackson’s nickname is The Ass-Kicking Machine and Ray Cooper III will find out why that is the case. We think there’s no scenario in which Jackson doesn’t beat him.
Not only has he had a full camp, but even if it was the other way around, we’d be still betting on him – he’s just better than Cooper.