Will Ray Cooper III be the UFC champ?

[judge wolf]

He is pretty good and I have to be honest, guy looks very good.

I hope he is soon in UFC but I’m not sure he is champ potential...maybe...

Thoughts?

 

[Threetrees]

PFL pays more, he won’t leave until they run out of cash

 

[Bitburger]

Starching Jake Shields once is impressive enough, but completely dominating him again in the rematch lets me know that this dude is the real deal

Let him win this million dollar tournament first then I'd like to see him against the best guys at Bellator or the UFC.

 

[robbie]

Cooper probably isn't in a hurry to go to the UFC and earn peanuts if he can be a contender for a $1,000,000 championship bonus every year against relatively average competition.

 

[Congo66]

17-4 and 2 wins over a very old Jake Shields.
I'm going to go with no.
But he is only 25 so who knows but I'll stick with no for now.

 

[MMAProfessional]

He is pretty good and I have to be honest, guy looks very good.

I hope he is soon in UFC but I’m not sure he is champ potential...maybe...

Thoughts?

Beating an old Jake Shields twice is impressive but saying he could be UFC champ is a little too far.

 

[rjmbrd]

Starching Jake Shields once is impressive enough, but completely dominating him again in the rematch lets me know that this dude is the real deal

Let him win this million dollar tournament first then I'd like to see him against the best guys at Bellator or the UFC.

Jake Shields is about to turn 40 in a few months and is far removed from his athletic and fighting prime. Beating Jake today doesn't mean what it meant years ago.

Beating Jake today shouldn't indicate anyone is anything, in my opinion.

Ray Cooper looks like fun, it'll be interesting to see how he does as he moves along in his career.

 

[MMAProfessional]

17-4 and 2 wins over a very old Jake Shields.
I'm going to go with no.
But he is only 25 so who knows but I'll stick with no for now.

Exactly. Jake is his only notable win and he's almost 40. Equating that to a UFC belt is asinine.

 

[Goatenstein]

Starching Jake Shields once is impressive enough, but completely dominating him again in the rematch lets me know that this dude is the real deal

Let him win this million dollar tournament first then I'd like to see him against the best guys at Bellator or the UFC.

To be fair it also lets us know Shields is shot as shit.

 

[Mahkor]

He is about to win 1 milli, doubt he is in a hurry to make that 20/20 plus 2000 reebok money.

 

[Bitburger]

Jake Shields is about to turn 40 in a few months and is far removed from his athletic and fighting prime. Beating Jake today doesn't mean what it meant years ago.

Beating Jake today shouldn't indicate anyone is anything, in my opinion.

Ray Cooper looks like fun, it'll be interesting to see how he does as he moves along in his career.

To be fair it also lets us know Shields is shot as shit.

I agree that Jake is not in his prime, but it's still an impressive win to me because Jake is still one of the best grapplers on earth and never had a style that relied on athleticism.

He fights the same way he did 6 years ago, just a little slower.

 

[EVIL WAR GOD]

Anything is possible.

BB and Brock are getting title shots so nothing would surprise me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I hope Lewis finds that KO.

 

[Horriblehim]

Would love to him see him ib the ufc. See if he csn make 155 though. That would be awesome.

 

[rjmbrd]

I agree that Jake is not in his prime, but it's still an impressive win to me because Jake is still one of the best grapplers on earth and never had a style that relied on athleticism.

He fights the same way he did 6 years ago, just a little slower.

Sorry but I'm going to disagree with both those statements.

Jake isn't remotely one of the best grapplers on earth right now, by any definition or context. He's a very talented MMA adapted grappler, but his best days are well behind him.

I think Jake is locked in at #2 most accomplished welterweight of all time, behind Georges. The Jake Shields that was a world class fighter isn't around anymore, the dude is 40 years old with a ton of millage. If you catch Jake being interviewed or on a podcast, he specifically says as much. Essentially he's doing the best he can with what he's got left.

 

[Chad W]

Idk about champ potential but he's been my favorite fighter to watch in PFL and really entertaining. I think he could potentially be in the top 15 but why go to the ufc when you could win $1million in PFL as long as they are financially solvent

 

[LHWBelt]

Honestly once woodley is dethroned that division is very much in question so it's possible.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

I agree that Jake is not in his prime, but it's still an impressive win to me because Jake is still one of the best grapplers on earth and never had a style that relied on athleticism.

He fights the same way he did 6 years ago, just a little slower.

i was going to say this.

Jake Shields never really had great athleticism and his style was based more on having an iron chin and heart and being a good positional grappler.

Cooper smashed him everywhere so that's impressive to me.

i do not however think he's a UFC champion, at least not yet.

 

[Deleted member 551049]

His instincts for when to strike during scrambles/out of clinch breaks are pretty amazing.

 

[ThaiPlumRillo]

Definitely has the skills and has improved at already a young age

 

[Your Noodly Master]

Who?