Rory
MacDonald will finally make his highly-anticipated Professional
Fighters League debut in the main event of the promotion’s April 29
event against David
Michaud.
The PFL announced the bout, along with the full card for its second
2021 regular season event, on Tuesday. The lineup will feature
welterweights and light heavyweights, with the main card airing on
ESPN2 and the prelims streaming via ESPN+.
The rest of the main card lineup is as follows: Ray Cooper
III vs. Jason Ponet
at welterweight; Jordan
Johnson vs. Tom Lawlor at
light heavyweight; and Emiliano
Sordi vs. Chris
Camozzi at light heavyweight.
Meanwile, the preliminary draw will feature a total of six
contests: Magomed
Magomedkerimov vs. Joao
Zeferino at welterweight; Smealinho
Rama vs. Jordan
Young at light heavyweight; Cezar
Ferreira vs. Nick
Roehrick at light heavyweight; Gleison
Tibau vs. Alexey
Kunchenko at welterweight; Sadibou Sy
vs. Nikolay
Aleksakhin at welterweight; and Dan Spohn vs.
Marthin
Hamlet at light heavyweight.
A former Bellator 170-pound champion and UFC title challenger,
MacDonald signed with PFL after losing to Douglas
Lima in the finals of Bellator’s welterweight grand prix. “The
Red King” also challenged for gold in the UFC, falling to Robbie
Lawler via fifth-round TKO in July 2015. MacDonald’s resume
includes wins over the likes of Lima, Paul Daley,
Tyron
Woodley, Demian Maia,
B.J. Penn
and Nate
Diaz, to name a few.
A three-time UFC veteran, Michaud reached the 170-pound finals for
PFL in 2019, where he fell to Cooper via second-round technical
knockout. The MMA Lab representative is 18-6 as a professional with
stints in Bellator, Legacy Fighting Alliance, Combate Americas and
Titan FC to his credit as well.