Scottish lightweight Stevie Ray is attempting to keep the thought of a $1million PFL win at the back of his mind ahead of tonight's play-off with Anthony Pettis.
Ray submitted Pettis in the second round of their first meeting in June during the pre-season of the Professional Fighters' League, but the American had already qualified for the play-offs. So their second bout should be one of higher intensity, with Pettis looking to prove he is still at world championship level at this late stage of his career.
After three years out of the cage, including a brief retirement, Ray was brought into the PFL this year, losing a decision to Alex Martinez before tapping former UFC champion Pettis in his biggest career win. And he has now found himself just two wins away from PFL gold, and becoming a millionaire.
"It's in the back of my mind," Ray said of the life-changing potential seven-figure prize. "It's the main goal, but the short-term goal and the main focus is on Pettis and I can't look past him even though I'm confident.
"I've put in the work, I believe I'm going to get the job done but I can't write him off or underestimate him. He's going to want to come in there and get revenge, so all of my focus is on Pettis. After I beat him on Friday, then maybe I'll think a wee bit more about the million and focus on what's next."
For Pettis, this fight is an important one to prove that he can still compete at the top level in MMA after a disappointing start to his PFL tenure. He missed out on last year's play-offs following a high-profile departure from the UFC, but wants to prove that he is still a major title contender.
The $1million prize is less explicitly important for the Milwaukee native, who has had a long career including a number of big paydays. But he has been keen to maintain his image as a top star in the sport, engaging with a number of media obligations throughout the week while making the gruelling cut to lightweight.
"I like that I get an opportunity to avenge that loss," Pettis said. "The first fight I went in there with a game plan of surviving and not getting hurt because I already knew I was guaranteed a spot here, which was the first time in my career where I had two fights booked back-to-back.
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"The fight didn't go my way but now I go and right that wrong. I just got caught in a position that I had never been in before, honestly. I let him take my back and props to him he had a good submission ready for me that I couldn't escape, but I won't make that mistake twice.
Legendary former two-weight world champion Randy Couture believes the fight is much more difficult to call than the first, given Pettis new motivation. He is similar to oddsmakers in struggling to pick a winner at Madison Square Garden tonight.
"With this format how the points play out can change the way you approach a fight," Couture explained. "In his fight against Stevie Ray he had already qualified, he didn't have to steal points or even win to still get in the play-offs.
"I wonder how much that effects your mentality when you still have to solve the problems of the guy standing across the cage. I think the onus is always on the guy that won the first fight, you know the other guy is going to change some things so it's a wild guess as to what it's going to be.
"That's where Stevie Ray is sitting, obviously Stevie has been in this situation before, he's been the spoiler in a couple of other big fights in his career, he's a very formidable guy with great submission skills so it's going to be an interesting fight all the way around, the real question is if he can figure out what adjustments Anthony is going to make this time around."
Stevie Ray fights Anthony Pettis in the lightweight PFL play-offs tonight at the Hulu Theatre in Madison Square Garden, live on Channel 4 at midnight
