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Rory MacDonald will compete for the Professional Fighters League in 2020 after signing a contract to fight on multiple occasions under the organisation’s banner…
Rory MacDonald will compete for the Professional Fighters League in 2020 after signing a contract to fight on multiple occasions under the organisation’s banner…
Blood spattered the screen during the entrance video for Rory MacDonald (20-4), Bellator’s new welterweight champion. Somehow, after his grueling victory over Douglas Lima at Bellator 192, that seemed more appropriate than ever.
“I have a rage in me, y…
Blood spattered the screen during the entrance video for Rory MacDonald (20-4), Bellator’s new welterweight champion. Somehow, after his grueling victory over Douglas Lima at Bellator 192, that seemed more appropriate than ever.
“I have a rage in me, you know,” he told the cameras on the new Paramount Network, face, as ever, devoid of any discernible emotion. “When things get messy, I rise to the occasion and take it to another level.”
Some fighters are known for their slick submissions, others for their fearsome knockout power or intricate footwork that turns the sport into almost a dance, a gliding display of brutal elegance.
MacDonald, though a skilled technician in all those areas, personifies something else entirely. The punishment he took in a 2015 fight against Robbie Lawler was so unsparing and barbarous that even thinking about it can make the most hardened fight fan shudder. His is the face of will, of grit, of courage, a broken, battered shell, eyes half-lidded, lips curled into half a smile.
And this time, his face wasn’t even the worst of it.
In the second round, new Bellator color commentator “Big” John McCarthy noted Lima’s powerful leg kicks and their potential impact on the fight. They weren’t the flashy kicks that traditionally draw a reaction from fans, shin bouncing off thigh with a satisfying smack. These, McCarthy pointed out, were targeting the shin. These were the crippling kind.
By the third of five rounds, there was no hiding the damage Lima had done. MacDonald’s lower left leg began to swell, eventually in truly grotesque fashion, his shin seemingly growing its own additional shin. As the round closed, Lima dropped him to the ground with a kick to the leg, then bloodied his nose with ground-and-pound.
Things didn’t look good.
“I’ve seen a lot of fights in my day and I’ve seen a lot of warriors go in there,” Bellator President Scott Coker told the press after the fight. “… But Rory MacDonald really impressed me tonight. He had the perseverance, the indomitable spirit, all the intangibles of what I consider the foundation of martial arts.
“He exemplified some great strength tonight, inner strength. He could have quit a couple of times. That leg was gone. … I said ‘one more kick, it’s over’ and then he got kicked again, then took him right down. I said ‘wow, this guy wants it really bad.'”
We watch sports to see human beings do incredible things. Sometimes those are feats of incredible athletic daring, displays of speed, strength and endurance that defy the limits of comprehension.
Fighting offers all of that and something more.
The great fighters conquer more than just their own bodies. They vanquish pain and fear itself, continuing in the face of adversity that would humble the strongest of us.
Rory MacDonald is a fighter’s fighter. As the judges rendered their scorecards and McCarthy interviewed him in the cage, the facade slipped momentarily. He needed a cornerman’s help just to stand. A trip to the hospital soon followed. But, for 25 minutes, MacDonald faced the pain—and pain backed down.
“I think I have a person growing inside of me,” MacDonald joked in the cage after the fight. “I can’t really walk on it. But, whatever. I got through it.”
Watching him dispatch Paul Daley and now Lima, it would be easy to make a case for MacDonald, still just 28 years old despite more than 12 years in the sport, as the best welterweight on the planet. I won’t do that here.
Let’s simply note that MacDonald is one of the bravest, mentally strong and truly inspiring warriors ever to step inside a steel cage. It’s possible to out-skill him. Some have managed to be even more ferocious. But if it’s a battle of will and will alone, my money is on Rory MacDonald.
And, for a fighter, that’s the greatest compliment of all.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
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UFC Fight Night 89 took place in Ottawa on Saturday evening, and the TD Place Arena was treated to a long night of high-quality MMA action.
In the main event, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson continued his ascent up the welterweight ladder by knocking off …
UFC Fight Night 89 took place in Ottawa on Saturday evening, and the TD Place Arena was treated to a long night of high-quality MMA action.
In the main event, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson continued his ascent up the welterweight ladder by knocking off former title contender Rory MacDonald. How far will this move Thompson up the ranks, and how far will MacDonald fall? We will examine that.
Donald Cerrone stated his case to be a contender in the weight class too. Cerrone pelted Patrick Cote en route to a finish. This opens the door for a plethora of fun matchups at 170 pounds.
But the other 22 fighters’ futures will also be addressed. Theorizing on their next outings is no easy task. The UFC’s large roster will give them many options for their next bouts. Let’s waste no time and get to cracking on filling out the next step for the winners and losers from Ottawa.
Here is what should be coming next for the winners and losers of UFC Fight Night 89.
The UFC is back in action this weekend with an elite-level welterweight showdown leading the charge.
No. 2-ranked welterweight* Rory MacDonald (18-3) meets No. 3-ranked Stephen Thompson (12-1) in a five-round main event that could put the winner in lin…
The UFC is back in action this weekend with an elite-level welterweight showdown leading the charge.
No. 2-ranked welterweight* Rory MacDonald (18-3) meets No. 3-ranked Stephen Thompson (12-1) in a five-round main event that could put the winner in line for the next title shot at 170 pounds.
MacDonald is 3-2 in his last five outings, but both losses were to current champion Robbie Lawler. This will be his first fight back since the epic encounter with Lawler last July at UFC 189. Thompson, meanwhile, has been lighting the welterweight world on fire.
Thompson is on a six-fight winning streak in the division and is coming off back-to-back knockout victories over Jake Ellenberger and Johny Hendricks.
With a potential title shot hanging in the balance, fans can expect MacDonald and Thompson to leave everything inside the cage.
Which welterweight will walk out of Ottawa with a strong case to make for a title shot later in the year? Here is your head-to-toe breakdown for UFC Fight Night 89’s marquee fight.
*Bleacher Report MMA‘s June Rankings
UFC 189 is finally here. The jam-packed fight card takes place in Las Vegas, and Conor McGregor is your headliner opposite Chad Mendes.
We will find out just how big of a draw McGregor truly is in his first headlining appearance. Unfortunately, it…
UFC 189 is finally here. The jam-packed fight card takes place in Las Vegas, and Conor McGregor is your headliner opposite Chad Mendes.
We will find out just how big of a draw McGregor truly is in his first headlining appearance. Unfortunately, it will not come against Jose Aldo. Thankfully, it’s still an elite-level matchup.
The co-main event is not to be forgotten. Welterweight champion Robbie Lawler meets No. 2-ranked ranked contender Rory MacDonald. The two have met before in the Octagon, and it was Lawler who nabbed a split decision victory.
The pay-per-view main card is worth every penny the UFC is charging. It’s a stacked event with two titles on the line. But where should you play your funds in regards to the betting odds? That is what we will take a look at here. There are several interesting underdogs to look at.
This is the event many of us have been waiting for, and UFC 189 will be sure to deliver. Let’s hope it delivers in the wallet as well.
After much speculation, Rory MacDonald will not be getting his first title shot in the UFC.
According to UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani, the UFC brass called MacDonald to update the status of his once-promised title shot. Dana White didn’t just col…
After much speculation, Rory MacDonald will not be getting his first title shot in the UFC.
According to UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani, the UFC brass called MacDonald to update the status of his once-promised title shot. Dana White didn’t just color MacDonald the No. 1 contender after his victory over Tarec Saffiedine in October, he said the fight would take place in MacDonald’s home country.
“It’s pretty impossible to deny Rory that (title shot), whoever comes out of that Hendricks-Lawler fight, he’s the next guy in line,” White told The Canadian Press.
Obviously that was before Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler took center stage at UFC 181 earlier this month to make for the “pretty impossible” scenario White could barely imagine—before the two men completed rounds five through 10 of what will likely end up being a 15-round trilogy for the UFC’s two most recent welterweight champions.
“It’s all good,” MacDonald told Helwani. “I’m just gonna light up whoever is next. Like always.”
In reality, it might only be “all good” because that’s just the way it has to be. Because for as excited as MacDonald may have gotten after being “promised” a title shot, he must have be cognizant of the big, fat historic asterisk title shot guarantees have under White’s lexicon.
Just look at Anthony Pettis who, after defeating Benson Henderson for the WEC lightweight championship to become the promotion’s final 155-pound king, was promised a title shot against the winner of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard.
Edgar and Maynard would fight to a draw, forcing the incoming WEC champ to either sit and wait about a year for his turn or pick up a fight with one of the top UFC lightweights. A unanimous-decision loss to Clay Guida and controversial Edgar title fights would prevent Pettis from fighting for the title until 2013, about two years after his first shot was supposed to take place.
Then there’s Cub Swanson and his promised shot at Jose Aldo’s featherweight throne. After racking up Ws against some of the best featherweights on the planet, White and Co. felt Swanson had done more than enough to stake his claim as the the division’s No. 1 contender.
But that was before brash Irishman and fan favorite Conor McGregor proved himself against a top-10 featherweight, giving the UFC the go-ahead for Irishman’s future title aspirations. Swanson would be asked to take on Edgar in what Swanson understood to be the final contingency separating him from his shot at UFC gold.
You could even ask Alexander Gustafsson about his latest plea for a shot at light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The Swede lost his shot at the champ after suffering a knee injury. All was well until Jones had to pull out of his replacement bout against Daniel Cormier, which forced the Swedish fighter to re-request his originally promised title bout.
But as the UFC likely saw it, the Jones-Cormier brawl created too great of a financial opportunity to leave untapped, regardless of when the fight would take place or whom they would inconvenience.
Unfortunately for MacDonald and other UFC contenders, title shots are circumstantial. Meaning, they’re only promised as long as they make financial sense for the promotion, not the fighter.
That’s because the average fan would have rather watched Edgar-Maynard III, Aldo-McGregor and Jones-Cormier.
For as well as MacDonald’s fought as of late, a trilogy between Lawler and Hendricks, who fought to a close controversial decision, makes more financial sense than adding a new fighter into the mix.
This situation, while likely disappointing for MacDonald, may harness a silver lining. Carlos Condit, who handed MacDonald his first career defeat back in 2010, plans to return this March or April. The Natural Born Killer should make for a viable opponent for the division’s No. 2-ranked welterweight.
Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report MMA. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.
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