Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Canadian Fighters

2. Rory MacDonald

The recently retired MacDonald, a long-time elite welterweight who challenged for the UFC title and was a Bellator champion, finishes as the unanimous runner-up. At his best, he was a tremendously well-rounded fighter, with excellent, technical striking and very good grappling, making opponents scratch their heads about how to beat him. Turning professional at only 15 years old, MacDonald started his career 10-0, including a submission of another young Canadian welterweight in Jordan Mein as well as knockouts of solid opponents in Kajan Johnson and Clay French. However, the 20-year-old MacDonald then received his first defeat at the hands of a prime Carlos Condit, being stopped with strikes only seven seconds before the scheduled end of the match. Given MacDonald's age and that this was a few fights before Condit challenged Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight crown, it was only a temporary stumble. MacDonald went on an impressive five fight winning streak that saw him crack the best welterweights in the round, decisioning Nate Diaz, BJ Penn, and Jake Ellenberger, and knocking out Mike Pyle and Che Mills. Despite being a monster favorite against Robbie Lawler, MacDonald dropped a split decision over three rounds. MacDonald went on another winning streak, one that saw him record the best wins of his career, knocking out Tarec Saffiedine, winning a judges' verdict over Demian Maia and utterly dominating Tyron Woodley just two years before Woodley became the UFC welterweight champion himself. MacDonald had his own chance to ascend the welterweight throne in a rematch against Robbie Lawler in 2015, one for which he was a favorite. In one of the greatest fights of all time, the two engaged in a brutal war of attrition for over 20 minutes, with the fight being waved off early in the fifth round due to the tremendous injuries MacDonald had sustained, especially a nose that would be surgically reconstructed multiple times in the years afterwards.

Many believe that this was the time when MacDonald, who was just about to turn 26 years old, began his decline. When he came back, he dropped a decision to another elite welterweight in Stephen Thompson and made the shocking decision to switch to Bellator. MacDonald had initial success, submitting world-class striker and Sherdog's sixth-greatest British fighter Paul Daley and then winning a clear verdict over champion Douglas Lima to win his crown. However, an attempt to go up to middleweight to challenge champion Gegard Mousasi went poorly, with Mousasi dominating MacDonald with his jab before pounding him out in the second stanza. MacDonald's results became spotty from there, with a draw against a 41-year-old Jon Fitch who would retire a fight later, a closer than expected decision win over skilled grappler Neiman Gracie, and then losing his crown in a rematch to Lima, who defended against MacDonald’s takedowns and beat him up on the feet. MacDonald made the jump to Professional Fighters League but his results continued to get worse—though it should be noted that his decision loss to Gleison Tibau is one of the worst robberies I've ever seen—with the Canadian retiring after a first-round knockout defeat against Dilano Taylor. MacDonald ended up peaking and declining far earlier than expected, but he was one of, if not the best welterweight in the world for four years and defeated a bunch of excellent foes. He is a worthy runner-up on this list.

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