He was a nationally ranked wrestler at St. Charles College (high school) in Ontario, where he also played football and ran track. MacDonald sports a professional MMA record of 4-1.
MMA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Rob stopped Victor Valimaki after the first round at the Maximum Fighting Champions 5. He was eliminated from competition on TUF 2 when Brad Imes (Pictures) submitted him via triangle choke.
UFC EXPERIENCE: 1-1. Rob was submitted with a Kimura by Jason Lambert (Pictures) at UFC 58 but returned to score a submission victory in the first round of his bout with fellow TUF alum Kris Rotharmel at Ultimate Fight Night 5.
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: Rob is physically strong and a good overall athlete who recently came down a weight class to fight as a light heavyweight.
SCHAFER: 6’ 3”, 205 pounds, 28, Milwaukee, Wis., known as “Ravishing Red”
BACKGROUND: Eric Schafer trains under Super Brawl veteran Henry Matamoros (Pictures) and is a Pedro Sauer Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt. Schafer was turned on to the UFC through home video and began training jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai after graduating high school.
He has won numerous submission wrestling and jiu-jitsu tournaments and is the current XFO light heavyweight champion. Eric has a professional MMA record of 3-1-2 with an additional eight bouts (7-1) as an amateur.
MMA CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Eric stopped Al Mussemann and Ben Fowler to advance to the finals of the 1998 Extreme Challenge Trials. He was knocked out in the final bout by Wade Kroeze. He would claim the Midwest Shootfighting tournament in June of ’98. “Ravishing Red” would go on to beat Meat Truck Inc. fighter Steve Martin and fight a three-fight stint in HOOKnSHOOT, culminating in a loss to ATT standout Dustin Denes (Pictures). Schafer would return after a few years away from fighting and is 3-0 since 2005 with wins over Jason Guida (Pictures) and William Hill (Pictures).
UFC EXPERIENCE: Debut.
WHAT HE BRINGS TO THE BOUT: Schafer, like his instructor, is very submission oriented. You can expect to see an elaborate ground game from him with striking employed as a tool to get things on the mat.
MY PICK: MacDonald. Schafer has a lot more experience but not as a pro and certainly not in the Octagon. That’s a big hurdle to get over. If it goes to the mat and stays there I like Schafer’s chances. However, if he’s out-muscled in the early moments, he may be overwhelmed by the UFC veteran.