STEVIE RAY enters the Professional Fighters League 2023 season a hangry man after losing THREE STONE in weight.
Ray is in his second year with the PFL, MMA’s only seasonal format with qualifying and knockout stages.
PFL lightweight star Stevie Ray
Professional Fighters League Stevie Ray returns to the PFL 2023 season[/caption]
Points are earned per method of victory in the opening two bouts with the top four in each weight progressing into the semi-finals.
From there, it is victory-or-go-home culminating in a winner-take-all finale fight where a title belt and $1million prize cheque lays in wait.
Ray got all the way to the final last year and was one win away from the life-changing sum until he was knocked out by Canadian Olivier Aubin-Mercier, 34.
The Scot took some time out after the KO loss but ate his way up to 14st while enjoying a well-deserved holiday break.
So getting himself back in the gym on a mission to get back down to the 11st lightweight limit proved hungry work.
And he warned opponent Natan Schulte, 31, will be the poor soul he takes out his frustration on.
Ray, 33, told SunSport: “I struggled with motivation at the start of this camp, to get back after last year.
“I got up to like 92 kilos, which is like 200lb in weight and that’s not me going crazy either, that’s just me eating normal.
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“I was on an all inclusive holiday, so I was eating cooked breakfast every day but I wasn’t doing anything too crazy and my weight went up to 200lb.
“So that’s the roughest part for me, just making the weight. That’s 45lb above my fight weight, which is three stone.
“It’s rubbish always dieting, being on a calorie deficit but that’s I suppose what I’m going to try and do, take it out on my opponent.
“It’s nothing to do with the tournament, I’m just going to have to beat up my opponent for making me diet for so long.”
Having come so close last season, Ray is now taking this campaign fight-by-fight.
He said: “It’s mixed emotions, I don’t think I got outclassed in the final fight, it was just one of those ones, I got caught with a punch.
“I got caught with a shot in a round I was winning. Obviously, it’s frustrating and it’s annoying but this year I’m taking it one fight at a time.
I’m just going to have to beat up my opponent for making me diet for so long.
Stevie Ray
“I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m not even treating it like a tournament this first fight.
“Obviously I’m always going to be looking for a finish to get the points but I’m just focussing on this first fight.”
Ray retired from MMA in 2020 after amid ongoing knee injuries but made a comeback after signing with the PFL a year later.
But the ex-UFC contender admits this could be his final year in the cage and winning the $1m cash prize would help set up his life after fighting.
He said: “I think this will be my last year of fighting, I’ll probably be retired after this year.
“Whether it was my last year or not obviously I’m always going to try and win the whole thing, I never enter anything just to take part.
“But this year I’m looking to try and win it, I know there’s always a chance I don’t win it but if I don’t end up winning the whole thing, I’ll try and use the money I do make to invest in something else.
“That’s the hardest part I think for some fighters, walking away from the sport when you’re making good money, it’s kind of hard to walk away.
“It’s all I’ve done for the past 13 or 14 years, so to go from that, I don’t really know what I’m going to do once I’m finished.
“I quite fancy something different as well. We’re going to see what happens but I’m going to use this year business-wise to think of the future.”
Professional Fighters League Stevie Ray lost in the 2022 PFL lightweight final to Olivier Aubin-Mercier[/caption] Read More