Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) wasn’t the only show in town this weekend (Sat., April 27, 2019), as Bellator 220 went down inside the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., featuring a Welterweight title fight between division champion Rory MacDonald and top contender Jon Fitch.
After five rounds of action the fight was declared a draw, which means “Red King” is still the champion. For how long, however, remains to be seen.
While Rory didn’t exactly say his days of fighting are numbered, his post-fight comments sure do lean that way, as he caught everyone by surprise by admitting that he doesn’t have the killer instinct one needs to inflict the damage necessary to score wins and remain champion.
That’s in large part to his relationship with God, whom Rory says spoke to him mid-fight.
“I feel like God has really called me the last little while,” MacDonald said. “I don’t know. He’s changed my spirit, changed my heart. It takes a certain spirit to come in here and put a man through pain. I don’t know if I have that same drive to hurt people anymore. I don’t know what it is. It’s confusing, but I know the Lord has something in store for me. He was speaking to me in here tonight. I don’t know. It’s a different feeling.”
This isn’t the first time Rory has doubted himself inside the cage. After getting rag-dolled by Gegard Mousasi in a Middleweight title fight last year, he admitted to lacking the fire in order to put up a good fight.
When broached on the subject of how his thought process was going to affect his upcoming quick turnaround against Neiman Gracie on June 14 in the next round of the Welterweight Grand Prix, MacDonald was uncertain he’d even make it.
“I have to get out of here and re-evaluate. We will see what happens. As far as tonight, it was a mix of emotions in there I landed some good stuff in there, but it was something in there.”
While no one can hate on Rory for re-evaluating his current career based on his relationship with God and not having the desire to inflict pain on others, Gracie isn’t quick to buy his reasoning for second-guessing his combat sports commitment moving forward.
“It’s up to him (whether he wants to fight),” Gracie told MMA Junkie post-fight. “I think he still wants to hurt people. I saw him trying to hurt Fitch pretty bad tonight. I think it’s bullshit.”
Undefeated at 9-0, Gracie says he’s a much bigger threat to Rory than Fitch, despite Jon’s edge in experience. Plus, he feels he has the blueprint to take down “Red King” — thanks to Fitch.
With his mind not obviously 100-percent into the fight game at the moment, Rory taking the fight against Gracie just for the sake of fulfilling his duties to Bellator could leave him susceptible for a devastating and painful loss.