Rory MacDonald has the chance to become the first and only simultaneous two-division Bellator MMA champion when he takes on middleweight king Gegard Mousasi Saturday at Bellator 206.
Return of The Red King
Macdonald wants to prove himself as the best in the world, and for now, that means moving up to middleweight to take on a pioneer of the sport in the highly-regarded Mousasi.
MacDonald is best known for his back and forth war with Robbie Lawler in 2015, but don’t let that performance fool you: the Canadian built his career on patient, intelligent striking and rarely gets pulled into a firefight. Like his opponent this weekend, MacDonald’s entire game relies on the most basic aspect of combat sports -- feints and jabs. Against current Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Tyron Woodley, MacDonald picked him apart from bell-to-bell with a wide variety of feints and jabs before jumping in with a quick combo against the cage.
MacDonald’s fights against Woodley and B.J. Penn perfectly encapsulate what he does best. Jab and feint his opponent to the cage before jumping in with a quick flurry, then sliding back out of range and doing repeating the process. Something to notice about his aggressiveness against the cage are the variety of attacks. He never throws the same combo twice and mixes up punches and kicks from head to toe as to rarely give opponents an opportunity to counter.
Since his first martial arts experience was with MMA, MacDonald doesn't showcase any one style of fighting and truly is a mixed martial artist. After his loss to Carlos Condit in 2010, MacDonald moved his camp to the Tristar Gym where welterweight legend Georges St. Pierre spent most of his career, and there are many similarities between the two. One of MacDonald’s go-to punches is the superman technique from either hand. He will use it as a jab or a leading right hand and often likes to throw a leg kick after similar to GSP.
MacDonald has a kick-heavy style and just like everything in his game, has a wide variety of attacks to choose from. Whether it’s standard rear-leg round kicks, lead-leg switch kicks or teeps to the body, he is always looking to hurt his opponents and generally likes to start his flurries with his legs. Since he prefers to stay at distance before leaping in with combos, he throws lots of teeps to the body to stifle the opponent’s forward motion and dwindle their cardio later in the fight.
MacDonald doesn't get the opportunity to counter often but when he does it’s just as effective as his leading attacks. His go-to counter is a lead or rear elbow over an opponent’s straight right, which he landed multiple times against Penn. He is also adept at catching kicks and firing off a counter right, as he did to Woodley.
MacDonald is known for his striking prowess, but has a much underrated grappling game. Since jumping to Bellator we have seen him focus on grappling like he did against Paul Daley and proved he can be just as dominant on the ground as he is on the feet. Most of his career knockouts came from ground-and-pound and the majority of his early wins were via submission.
What’s not being talked about much going into this fight are the similarities between MacDonald and Mousasi. Their striking revolves around their feints, jabs and setting traps for later in the fight and both have underrated grappling that they rely on when the time is right. Mousasi obviously has the size and experience advantage, but MacDonald is still young and rounding out his game. This should be fun.