Prepare for an earth-shattering statement that you have definitely not seen, heard or read in the past 24 hours: Rory MacDonald has all the tools to become a UFC champion.
Shocked?
Obviously.
Going into his fight with Che Mills at UFC 145, most people expected that MacDonald would dispose of the slick Brit without much difficulty. He was, after all, the heir apparent to Georges St-Pierre as the next big Canadian welterweight sensation.
When fight time came, he did absolutely nothing to indicate that the hype wasn’t earned.
By the midpoint of the second round, he’d smashed Mills so badly that his face was hardly recognizable, rag-dolling his man to the mat and then pounding away with vicious shots from all ground positions to secure the stoppage.
So no, it isn’t original or creative to say that Rory MacDonald has all the tools to be a UFC champion. But boy does it look to be true.
His wrestling, for a man who never wrestled at a high level in the traditional sense, is always on point in his fights. Once he gets things where he wants, his grappling and positional control is even more impressive.
His striking, though not yet elite, is enough to get by until he can impose his will on opponents.
His strength, for a man of only 22, is absolutely off the charts.
The mix of all these tools is proving to be incredibly hard for fighteres to match when they meet MacDonald. Be they a veteran, an up-and-comer, or even an eventual champion, no one has truly had an answer for the Tristar product.
Many people said the Mills fight was little more than a chance for the UFC to showcase its other elite prospect on a card headlined by the best one they have on the roster in Jon Jones. Everyone expected MacDonald to win, and win violently, and that’s what he did. Mills was outgunned from the start, and the fight unfolded accordingly.
MacDonald went out and did his part. He mixed it up on the feet a little bit, then got the fight where he wanted and did damage at a pace that even the most hardened MMA fans had to be impressed by. To put it mildly, ground-and-pound with that much force and accuracy is not something often seen.
At this stage in his career, Rory MacDonald is still a prospect. However with each passing appearance, he looks bigger, stronger, meaner and better. Considering that, there may be no one in the promotion with a better chance of one day becoming a UFC champion.
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