Rory MacDonald is set to fight Stephen Thompson in a welterweight bout at the June 18th UFC Fight Night event. MacDonald will be finishing out his UFC contract with this fight. MacDonald is currently on a six-fight deal, and his fight with Thompson will be his sixth fight, which means MacDonald could test the free agency market if he wanted too. MacDonald confirmed on Monday in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that he does plan to test the market and see what he is worth.
“I am fighting my sixth fight of my six-fight deal. I will be a free agent afterwards. Basically, we didn’t really come to an agreement, so I am going to honor the contract and go from there. We weren’t too far apart when we came down to it, but I felt that I was worth, my offer was fair, and I was going to stand my ground for what I feel I am worth and what I brought to the table. They didn’t see it like that, so, it’s okay. I’ll try to make a dominant performance and show my worth in my next fight. Then maybe after that, we will come to a new agreement.”
MacDonald (18-3) is currently on a one-fight losing streak. In his last six bouts, he’s 4-2. He beat Jake Ellenberger in July of 2013 by unanimous decision, but then lost to Robbie Lawler at UFC 167 by split decision. He rebounded with three straight wins over Demian Maia at UFC 170 by unanimous decision, then Tyron Woodley at UFC 174 by unanimous decision and then knocked out Tarec Staffiendine in October of 2014 in the third round. He was knocked out by Robbie Lawler in the fifth round of UFC 189.
MacDonald made it clear that he will sign with any promotion as long as the money is good.
“I want to make the most money I can. I want to get paid for what I bring to the table. I’ve sacrificed a lot to get to the top, to the world title. I really sacrificed, and I took a lot of chances and did a lot of favors for UFC. And I don’t think it got returned. So now, it’s all about making money and whoever wants to pay me the most is where I will go.”
Bellator MMA has been going after several UFC fighters who are free agents, and it’s expected that they go after MacDonald as well.
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