Rory MacDonald ‘Next in Line’ for Welterweight Title Shot, UFC Confirms

It’s all lining up for Rory MacDonald.
After winning his third straight contest last Saturday, the gifted young Canadian will receive the next shot at the UFC welterweight title. He will also do so on his home soil in an event that could take place as …

It’s all lining up for Rory MacDonald.

After winning his third straight contest last Saturday, the gifted young Canadian will receive the next shot at the UFC welterweight title. He will also do so on his home soil in an event that could take place as soon as March.

That’s according to UFC president Dana White, who reported the news to Sportsnet.Ca on Wednesday.

Robbie Lawler is set to challenge champion Johny Hendricks to a title rematch this December. MacDonald, White said, will face the winner. 

“It’s pretty impossible to deny Rory that, whoever comes out of that Hendricks-Lawler fight, he’s the next guy in line,” White said, according to the report. 

Though White did not specify a date or exact location for such a match, he did say that MacDonald would “absolutely, positively” fight for the strap in front of his countrymen.

“He’s next in line and that fight will be in Canada,” White said.

The UFC has previously indicated it has a March event date secured in Montreal. 

At UFC Fight Night 54, MacDonald earned a TKO victory of Tarec Saffiedine to run his winning streak to three. The 25-year-old British Columbia native also is 18-2 overall.

Interestingly, his last loss came to Lawler by decision at UFC 167 in November 2013. In his subsequent bout the following March, Lawler would lose by decision to Hendricks. Hendricks and Lawler were the first two men in more than seven years to engage in a welterweight title fight not involving Georges St-Pierre.

St-Pierre, as most fans know, is a training partner and mentor to MacDonald, and vacated his belt voluntarily after defeating Hendricks by decision in the very same UFC 167 where Lawler bested MacDonald.

Since that fateful night, MacDonald has turned things around, handling Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley before finishing Saffiedine on Saturday.

Though MacDonald would surely be willing to fight either man, a rematch with the most recent man and only second man ever to beat him in Lawler could make for a particularly satisfying title-fight experience.


Scott Harris covers MMA for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter.

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