Rory MacDonald is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned within the Welterweight division. With a current record of 12-1, he is slowly climbing the ranks and looking to earn himself a title shot. With his next bout set to go down against Che Mills at this Saturday’s UFC 145, let’s take a look at how Rory MacDonald got to where he is today.
Rory burst onto the MMA scene in 2005 at just seventeen years of age. In his first pro fight, he finished his opponent via Rear Naked Choke in just over two minutes. From that moment on, he plowed forward and never looked back.
MacDonald was eventually signed by the King of the Cage promotion where he quickly climbed up their Lightweight ladder and not only won the KOTC Canadian Lightweight Title, but also the KOTC World Lightweight Title. After winning the KOTC World Lightweight Championship, MacDonald decided up to the Welterweight division.
With a successful Welterweight debut, followed up by a victory in his second Welterweight debut, The UFC was knocking on his door. With an undefeated record consisting of five Submission victories and four KO/TKO victories, Rory MacDonald was signed to the UFC and set to face Mike “The Joker” Guymon in his debut. With many people already counting him out against The Joker, MacDonald just stuck to what he does best and won the fight by armbar in the very first round.
Later that summer, he faced his toughest opponent yet: “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit. Surprisingly, though, Rory came out strong and seemed to be winning the fight through the first two rounds. Unfortunately for him, it was a three round fight and Condit wasn’t done quite yet. With just minutes left in the fight, Condit flipped the script and had Rory hurting and in a bad position. After not being able to intelligently defend himself, the fight was stopped and MacDonald suffered his first career loss.
He suffered an injury that forced him out of a bout with Matt Brown at UFC 123 but returned at UFC 129. He was originally set to face off against James Wilks but Wilks was eventually replaced with the scrappy Nate Diaz. Rory put on a shockingly dominant performance against Diaz that, for the first time in his career, went to the Judges’ scorecards where he was awarded the Unanimous Decision victory. Not only did he shock many fans by dominating Diaz like never before, but he also made many new fans because of it.
In his next outing, MacDonald displayed his continuously improving skills as he dominated Mike Pyle via brutal ground and pound in the first round. With this destruction, he was slowly but surely becoming someone to look out for in the division. Unfortunately he suffered another injury that forced him out of his next fight at UFC 140; a bout with wily MMA veteran Brian Ebersole.
After being sidelined for approximately six months, Rory MacDonald is now healthy and ready to get back in The Octagon. His UFC 145 opponent will be the tough Che Mills who is riding a five-fight win streak and coming off a Knockout of the Night performance at UFC 138. When these two cross paths, expect nothing but a battle with Fight of the Night potential.
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Get more great MMA news and analysis over at MMA Valor.
Get more great MMA news and analysis over at MMA Valor.