Rory MacDonald
Canadian welterweight Rory ‘The Wateboy’ MacDonald (12-1) is winding down the intensity of his training camp with less than two weeks to go before he meets Che Mills at UFC 145.
MacDonald, who trains out of the Tri-Star gym in Montreal, talked about training in his recent Blog for Sportsnet.ca recently discussing a recent cold that he’s been battling. It’s nothing that has prevented him from his preparations, it’s just something that every fighter deals with whether it’s an injury or an illness.
‘The Waterboy’ notes that “If you feel 100 per cent and perfect going into a fight, there’s a good chance you weren’t training hard enough.”
I’ve got a pretty tough week ahead of me now, but for the most part, the toughest stage of training is now done and I’m just gearing up for fight week. I was sick for a couple of weeks, when everybody in the gym was fighting a cold, but I haven’t let it impact my training or my progress. I still feel extremely strong and fit, despite having to shake off that cold along the way.
There are always bugs and illnesses going around the gym and that’s just something you have to deal with. Very few fighters will ever go through a camp completely unscathed. You’ll either pick up some sort of cold or niggle. That’s just the business we’re in. If you feel 100 per cent and perfect going into a fight, there’s a good chance you weren’t training hard enough.
Luckily, this training camp has been one of my healthiest to date. Aside from the cold I mentioned, there has been very little else wrong with me during preparation. This has allowed me to knuckle down and work harder than ever for this fight.
MacDonald is currently 3-1 in the UFC with back-to-back wins over Mike Pyle and Nate Diaz last year. He had been scheduled to face Brian Ebersole last December at UFC 140 but was forced to pull out due to injury.