Venue: Ocean Casino Resort
The PFL promotions announced the start of the new season, with the second tournament to be held on April 30. Rory MacDonald and Curtis Millender will meet at the main event.
Rory MacDonald: giving up position, but will try to reboot
PFL has signed a lot of tough fighters this year, and one of the toughest is of course Rory MacDonald, former UFC star and former Bellator champion.
“The question of the PFL deal came up after a bit of a pause. We had to give Bellator time for them to make us an offer, but we never heard anything from them. So we were intrigued by negotiations with other organizations and the PFL stepped forward. We haven’t received anything from Bellator. It’s hard to know what their opinion is on the matter. I was a little surprised by their silence. The PFL has done a great job telling the stories of the fighters, as it’s all about drama and hype now. It’s also important that I end up on ESPN and get the opportunity to show a lot of people my fights. Of course, the $1 million prize pool is important. I also like that I can have two fights in one night in the quarterfinals and semifinals.”
Rory missed last year, and before that he lost in the Bellator Grand Prix finals to Douglas Lima. A little earlier, he lost his title fight to Gegard Mousasi. The 31-year old Canadian has 21 wins (7 KOs, 7 submissions) and 6 losses (3 KOs) on his record. The Red King is on the decline, and he’s not the bloodthirsty fighter he used to be just recently.
Curtis Millender: who is he?
Curtis is a less hype fighter, although he’s also fought in both the UFC and Bellator. In his last four fights, he has lost three times and now he also decided to try his luck in the PFL. But last year he was more or less active, he fought twice in Bellator, winning and losing both times by unanimous decision. All in prelims.
Millender once owned a couple of titles when he fought for California organizations and then came and went from Bellator, UFC and LFA several times. Of his most notable opponents, he has faced Belal Muhammad, Tiago Alves, Max Griffin and Kevin Holland. He does a lot of footwork. He hardly ever fights. Probably because he doesn’t know how.
Expert Betting Tips
Who is Curtis Millender? We don’t know. I mean, we know, but we don’t want to know. He’s a boring and mediocre fighter.
The other thing is Rory MacDonald. He may not be the same guy anymore, but even 10% (okay, 20%) of the old Rory is enough to decide this opponent. I believe he still has that much left.
The odds on his win are not the best (1.19 versus 4.70 on the American). The odds on Total Under 2.5 is 2.65.
Other predictions
