Canadian welterweight Rory ‘The Waterboy’ MacDonald (12-1) is set to meet ‘Beatuful’ Che Mills (14-4, 1NC) this March in Montreal, in the first offical bout announced for UFC 145.
News of the matchup surfaced ten days ago, and has now been confirmed by UFC officials on Tuesday via UFC.com.
“Verbal agreements are in for an explosive welterweight matchup between ‘Beautiful’ Che Mills and Rory ‘Ares’ MacDonald at UFC 145 next March in Canada,” said UFC president Dana White.
The 22-year-old Canadian MacDonald has wowed in his four UFC outings but was forced to withdraw from UFC 140 in Toronto due to injury. The UK’s Mills made an impressive UFC debut in November at UFC 138, with a 40-second kickboxing TKO of opponent.
UFC 145 is expected to take place on March 24th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. The bout will most certainly take place on the pay-per-view portion of the card.
‘The Waterboy’ is 3-1 in the Octagon having earned a first round TKO victory over Mike Pyle at UFC 133 in his last fight. Before that MacDonald earned a dominant decision victory over Nate Diaz at the UFC’s first Toronto event last April at UFC 129. His only Octagon loss so far was at the hands of Carlos Condit at UFC 115. MacDonald looked to be on his way to winning a decision over ‘The Natural Born Killer’ but was caught in the remaining seconds of the fight losing via TKO at 4:53 of the third round.
Mills, a former Cage Rage British welterweight champion, debuted with the UFC in November stopping opponent Chris Cope by TKO at UFC 138. The win was his fifth straight and also earned him the “Knockout of the Night” bonus. Looking at Mills record, he’s shown that he can win anywhere with seven victories by (T)KO, four by submission and three by decision.