No one has benefited any more from the advent of the Professional Fighters League than two-time champion Ray Cooper III.
As “Bradda Boy” awaits word on the PFL’s latest plans, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied him to this point:
28: Years of age for Cooper, who was born on Feb. 7, 1993 in Pearl City, Hawaii.
15: Cooper wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 63% of his career total (24). His list of PFL victims: Magomedkerimov, David Michaud, Chris Curtis, Handesson Ferreira, Jake Shields (twice) and Pavel Kusch. Cooper owns seven other wins by submission and two more by decision.
6: Sub-minute stoppage victories on the Cooper resume, though only one of them took place under the PFL banner. He punched out Kusch in 18 seconds at PFL 6 on Aug. 16, 2018.
9: Organizations in which Cooper has plied his trade as a mixed martial artist. He has gone 11-2-1 in the PFL, 4-0 in X-1 World Events, 3-1 in Gladiator Challenge, 3-0 in Star Elite Cage Fighting, 2-1 in Destiny MMA, 1-0 in King of the Cage, 0-1 in War on the Valley Isle, 0-1 in Pacific Xtreme Combat and 0-1 in Mid-Pacific Championships.
1: Stalemate on the Cooper ledger. He fought to a two-round majority draw with Sadibou Sy in a tournament quarterfinal at PFL 7 on Oct. 11, 2019.
15: First-round finishes to Cooper’s credit, with four of them having played out inside the PFL. In addition to his aforementioned rout of Kusch, he buried Shields with punches in 3:10 and cut down Ferreira with punches in 2:28 on Oct. 20, 2018, then submitted Jason Ponet with an arm-triangle choke in 1:23 on April 29, 2021.
4: Cooper losses by submission, accounting for 57% of his career total (seven). The perpetrators’ methods of choice: two guillotine chokes, one anaconda choke and one rear-naked choke. Cooper has suffered two other losses by knockout or technical knockout and one more by decision.
8: Consecutive victories for Cooper between Nov. 22, 2014 and Jan. 28, 2017. It remains the longest such streak of his career.
.735: Cumulative winning percentage between the seven men—Magomedkerimov, Ferreira, John Howard, Jun Yong Park, Craig Jackson, Danny Navarro and Joey Gomez—who have defeated Cooper. They boast a combined record of 119-41-2.
226: Combined wins between the 10 men Cooper has beaten since he joined the PFL roster in 2018: Shields (twice), Kusch, Ferreira, Magomedkerimov, Michaud, Curtis, Ponet, Zane Kamaka, Rory MacDonald and Nikolay Aleksakhin. They sport a cumulative record of 226-74-4 (.743).