All those itching to see Rory MacDonald inside the Bellator cage will have to wait a little bit longer.
On Twitter recently, MacDonald struck up a conversation with current Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima.
The two discussed potential fight dates, settling on July for the action to take place.
Lima stated that he is currently “treating some minor injuries,” while MacDonald is still recovering from a broken nose suffered at the hands of Stephen Thompson in his last UFC fight.
@PhenomLima WHO? and WHEN? do you want to fight next? cuz im lookin at july 2017. the choice is yours champ
All those itching to see Rory MacDonald inside the Bellator cage will have to wait a little bit longer.
On Twitter recently, MacDonald struck up a conversation with current Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima.
The two discussed potential fight dates, settling on July for the action to take place.
Lima stated that he is currently “treating some minor injuries,” while MacDonald is still recovering from a broken nose suffered at the hands of Stephen Thompson in his last UFC fight.
@PhenomLima WHO? and WHEN? do you want to fight next? cuz im lookin at july 2017. the choice is yours champ
As soon as Eddie Alvarez’s back hit the mat for the final time this past Saturday night in the UFC 205 main event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Conor McGregor began taking in a moment he had been envisioning for years. At the same time, th…
As soon as Eddie Alvarez’s back hit the mat for the final time this past Saturday night in the UFC 205 main event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Conor McGregor began taking in a moment he had been envisioning for years. At the same time, the social media world was blowing up.
Featured below are a collection of tweets that shows the reaction that McGregor’s peers had to his “Notorious Knockout” of the now former UFC Lightweight Champion Alvarez, which added the 155 pound title to the 145 pound title that he also owns, making him UFC’s first-ever simultaneous two-division world champion.
The reactions from other fighters in the MMA community such as UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos, Alexander Gustafsson, Rory MacDonald and others ranged from “all hail the king” to “f*ck that is infuriating!”
For those interested, MMANews.com has an assortment of video highlights of the Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez “Champion vs. Champion” from Saturday night’s historic UFC 205 pay-per-view event. Check out full fight highlights of the bout by clicking here. You can also watch some select video highlights from the fight by clicking here.
For complete UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor results from this past weekend, click here.
The Bellator ranks have taken a big boost in 2016, with multiple big names from the UFC crossing over. Former UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson is one such popular fighter, three-time middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen also signed with BMMA this year. Quinton Jackson, Phil Davis, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Josh Koscheck, the list goes
The Bellator ranks have taken a big boost in 2016, with multiple big names from the UFC crossing over. Former UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson is one such popular fighter, three-time middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen also signed with BMMA this year. Quinton Jackson, Phil Davis, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Josh Koscheck, the list goes on. After a number of rather WWE-style main event shows in 2015, it appears Bellator might finally be getting their act together.
That said, the recent and rather hilarious ‘debate’ between Sonnen and Ortiz was both entertaining and cringe-worthy in equal measure. Two fighters who both competed in the UFC welterweight division, and are now house under the Bellator MMA banner are Rory MacDonald and Paul Daley. Although ‘Red King’ had considerably more success in the UFC, both he and ‘Semtex’ are ever popular in the MMA fandom.
Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Similarities
After being pegged for title glory from the early stages of his UFC career, it never came to be for Rory MacDonald. The Canadian fighting phenom faced some bumps in the road when he joined the promotion as a fresh faced 21-year old. His Tristar training partner and friend Georges St-Pierre was the welterweight king at that time, and their relationship meant they would not fight each other. Once ‘Rush’ retired in late 2013, MacDonald had his chance at UFC title glory, losing a brutal and bloody was to Robbie Lawler at UFC 189.
Facing Stephen Thompson in his return, ‘Red King’ did not look the same, and had an even tougher opponent to battle after ‘Wonderboy.’ Unhappy with his new UFC contract offer, MacDonald tested free agency and was swiftly scooped up by Bellator. The similarity in the case of Daley is a thin one, but ‘Semtex’ was also once labelled as a hot prospect in the UFC. He alsop faced adversity, but that came because of a sucker punch on Josh Koscheck after their fight at UFC 113. Now pretty much ancient history, Daley is heading towards the 60-fight mark in his MMA career, and tells MMAJunkie.comthat he’d like to cross paths with MacDonald in Bellator:
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Paul Daley vs. Rory MacDonald?
“Definitely it’s a fight that interests me. I would love to test my skills against a guy that’s challenged for the UFC title. It would be a great fight. He’s the new prodigy after B.J. Penn. It would be great because he has a name, and it would be good to test my skills against him. We’ll see what happens. I think he will probably go straight for the title. We’ll see. If the fight is offered, I’ll take that.”
Rivalry With Koschek?
“I think he’s past that – I think Koscheck is past it,” Daley said. “It’s quiet on the Koscheck front, and I’m not interested in calling him out or anything. I just don’t think the guy’s head is in the game. He’s quiet, and I think he’s a guy that’s going to stay there. More power to him. If you’re not really feeling it, then it’s dangerous to accept such a fight against me.
“I’m past that fight. There are many more interesting fights out there for me.”
“I just want to stay active, and it’s one of the things I’ve loved to do in my career,” Daley said. “There are a lot of opportunities to stay active with Bellator and stay in the cage fighting.”
One of MMA’s most revered legends could be making his Bellator MMA debut in early 2017. Hours after he was spotted throwing down in a bad blood-fueled rant about cocaine and cash with Jon Jones, Bellator’s Matt Mitrione is reported to be facing all-time great PRIDE FC heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko in a Bellator cage
One of MMA’s most revered legends could be making his Bellator MMA debut in early 2017.
Hours after he was spotted throwing down in a bad blood-fueled rant about cocaine and cash with Jon Jones, Bellator’s Matt Mitrione is reported to be facing all-time great PRIDE FC heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko in a Bellator cage early next year. Reported by FloCombat’s Duane Finley, the fight is supposedly close to being booked but is not official as of yet.
Emelianenko was last seen winning a highly controversial majority decision over Fabio Maldonado at June’s EFN 50 from his homeland of Russia, a bout where the presiding athletic commission fell under intense scrutiny for its reportedly biased nature towards Emelianenko in terms of the result. Fedor was floored early by a barrage of punches from Maldonado and was thought to be finished, but somehow rebounded to pour on some heavy offense of his own when the referee failed to stop the fight in the first.
Before that, Fedor had returned to MMA in late 2015 under the Rizin banner, beating the lesser-known Jaideep Singh in a one-sided fight. Emelianenko’s return was promoted by Belltor in conjunction with Rizin head man and former PRIDE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara, and will now reportedly make his way to fight in Bellator.
The news would obviously be game-changing for MMA’s second-best promotion, which has most certainly made waves in recent months by signing big former UFC names like Rory MacDonald and Benson Henderson. A bout featuring Emelianenko, a fighter who the UFC attempted in vain to sign for years, would be a thunderous move for their prospects as serious competition to the the UFC, even if he is well past his formerly dominant prime.
It’d also be by far the biggest bout of Mitrione’s career, as he put on a good number of exciting bouts in the Octagon but never really got over the hump to become a top contender. After being at odds with UFC management for years, the former The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) competitor signed with Bellator earlier this year following a controversy-laden loss to Travis Browne, and has beaten Carl Seumanutafa and Oli Thompson by knockout in his only two Bellator bouts.
Those two fights clearly pale in comparison to a potential bout with Fedor, so Mitrione’s biggest fight could be coming soon. With Emelianenko still providing massive drawing potential as a legendary name, the same could be said for Bellator MMA as well.
Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson will finally get his shot at UFC gold after leaving a murderer’s row of body trails in his path, having downed elite 170-pounders in the form of former champ Johny Hendricks and two-time title challenger Rory MacDonald. Thompson will step into the Octagon with current welterweight king Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley,
Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson will finally get his shot at UFC gold after leaving a murderer’s row of body trails in his path, having downed elite 170-pounders in the form of former champ Johny Hendricks and two-time title challenger Rory MacDonald.
Thompson will step into the Octagon with current welterweight king Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley, who is coming off of a fierce first round knockout over Robbie Lawler at UFC 201 to secure the strap, in the co-main event of UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden.
‘Wonderboy’ earned his shot at the 170-pound throne after having put on a beautiful 25-minute performance against the now Bellator bound Rory MacDonald, by earning a unanimous decision decision victory over ‘The Red King’ at UFC Fight Night 89 this past June.
MacDonald has quite the resume himself when it comes to Octagon experience, interestingly enough owning a unanimous decision win over the current champ Woodley from their clash at UFC 174 in 2014.
Thompson recently joined Submission Radio, courtesy of MMA Mania, to discuss his upcoming match-up with Woodley and stated that he already believes he faced the toughest challenge at 170-pounds in the form of MacDonald:
“If you look back at his fights, he doesn’t throw a double or go for the takedown very often. Tyron wants to put those hands on you and wants to try and knock you out. I think once he gets a little frustrated, obviously he’s gonna try and do that, just like everybody else that I’ve faced. I think pretty much the hardest opponent in the division is Rory MacDonald. I mean, Rory pretty much schooled Tyron Woodley. But I can’t take this guy lightly and that’s how I go in looking at this fight.
A lot of people are like, ‘oh man, you’re gonna crush this dude and Tyron Woodley, he smoked him’ and you know what, I don’t think like that. I’m not the type of guy to do that. Because I want to prepare for the best guy, and that’s Tyron Woodley. That’s the guy standing in front of me. I’m preparing myself as if this is going to be the hardest fight that I have ever faced – and it possibly could be. I want to be ready for five, five-minute rounds.”
The 33-year-old former undefeated kickboxer is one of the most feared strikers in the UFC today, and could certainly reign as the next great champion in the welterweight division with a potential win over Woodley in November. Could the Serra-Longo Fight Team product be the next big Georges St-Pierre caliber champ in the UFC? Only time will tell.
Woodley and Thompson will go toe-to-toe in the co-main event of UFC 205 for the welterweight championship live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City on November 12, 2016.
Shocking news broke last night when it was reported that former multi-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen had signed a multi-fight, multi-year deal with Bellator MMA. “The American Gangster” had recently finished serving out a two-year suspension handed down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) after he failed multiple drug tests in 2014. He
Shocking news broke last night when it was reported that former multi-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen had signed a multi-fight, multi-year deal with Bellator MMA.
“The American Gangster” had recently finished serving out a two-year suspension handed down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) after he failed multiple drug tests in 2014. He had also entered himself into the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) testing pool, leading many to believe that he would be returning to the UFC.
Well, Sonnen sure threw us a curveball, but he will now serve as one of the biggest stars on the Bellator roster and many intriguing bouts await him.
Let’t take a look at five fights for the self-proclaimed ‘Bad Guy’ to take in his new promotion:
