A few months ago, Rory MacDonald came up short in his bid to become the Bellator MMA champ-champ after he was knocked out by Gegard Mousasi in the second round of their Middleweight title fight at Bellator 206.
When it was all said and done, Mousasi pretty much had his way with the current Welterweight king before putting on the bloody finishing touches. And if it seemed to the observer that MacDonald didn’t put much effort into it, it’s because he didn’t.
That’s according to “Red King” himself, who opened up about his loss on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show, saying he didn’t have much desire to fight hard, and didn’t have the fire he usually has despite the magnitude of the situation.
“I feel like I didn’t go in, I didn’t prepare myself properly the way I usually do. I think I had too many distractions and I just wasn’t focused. I didn’t have the fire in my veins like I usually do,” said Rory. “I just need to train harder next time, be more focused on the fight and not things in my life as much. Compared to when I first started in martial arts, my life is very comfortable. I make better money now and I have a good life outside of fighting. So I guess I got very comfortable and didn’t put myself out of my comfort zone while training for this fight. I think that was my first mistake. When you don’t have that, there is no focus, there is no passion and there is no fire and it showed in the fight.”
It sounds like a Rocky-style training camp may be in order for “Red King,” who can’t pinpoint exactly when and where the fire escaped him.
“I don’t know why. If it was bad timing or what. I still haven’t figured it out, but I am working on it. I knew during training camp that I wasn’t preparing myself properly. I was just kind of lying to myself like,’ I will just give it my best shot when it happens, make the best of it.’ But it turned out to be the worst performance of my career against my biggest opportunity. It’s a big let down but it was my fault at the end of the day. I only blame myself,” he added.
Still, Rory says there was nothing physically wrong with him prior to fight night,
“I felt fine, I wasn’t nervous or anything. I was very relaxed, maybe too relaxed. I didn’t have any desire to fight hard. I was too busy being comfortable, living a comfortable lifestyle and not pushing myself in my training. I was too relaxed, and in the fight. I didn’t have that fire, it was pretty clear, too”
To hear Rory tell it, the size advantage Gegard had on him wasn’t even a factor, calling his loss to “The Dreamcatcher” a “technical beating.” He does admit that after Gegard busted his nose wide open, he no longer had any desire to push hard moving forward, spelling the begging of the end for his championship aspirations.
“It’s embarrassing, but it’s the truth,” added Rory.
Furthermore, in between rounds one and two, Rory says he was mentally beaten, saying knew he was going to lose the fight. Still, he decided to go out there and go through the motions despite the fact that his strategy and his offensive output simply wasn’t working.
Are you surprised by MacDonald’s extremely-honest assessment?