Sense of Accomplishment Follows MacDonald Win

Jason MacDonald (Pictures) feels at home in the UFC's octagon. The lanky Canadian middleweight won his third UFC bout in Belfast, Northern Ireland last weekend, when he shook off a slow start to earn a TKO over Rory Singer (Pictures).

Still tired from the 4,000 mile flight from Belfast to his home in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, "The Athlete" discussed UFC 72 and his future plans with Sherdog.com.

"Northern Ireland was a very interesting place and I understand now why it's called the Emerald Isle -- it was very green. But the downside is that for all that green it has to rain all day every day," he chuckled.

"The Irish fans reminded me much of Maritimes people," added MacDonald. "They were fantastic and very friendly."

MacDonald has been fighting as a professional mixed martial artist for eight years now, and up until last year he had been getting a little frustrated by seeing so many fighters that he felt he could beat making it to the UFC.

That changed last year when, on the strength of a four-fight win streak, he got the call to meet Ed Herman (Pictures).

MacDonald won the fight that night and soon followed with another victory over Chris Leben (Pictures). Things looked good for the veteran. He had victories over two popular contestants from The Ultimate Fighter television show, and earned submission of the night honors and bonuses for each bout.

But then he was offered the opportunity to fight former UFC champion Rich Franklin (Pictures) in his first fight back since losing his belt to Anderson Silva (Anderson Silva' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures). MacDonald lost to "Ace," suffering temporary blindness out of his right eye, an injury that soon corrected itself.

But in typical MacDonald fashion he was able to extract some good from his experience, claiming that he made the same mistake that his fellow countryman Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) made in his first bout against Matt Hughes (Pictures): he looked at Franklin not as an opponent, but as a fan.

By performing decently against Franklin, MacDonald came to the realization that the words he has spoken for so long were actually true, and that he does belong in the mix of top-calibre competition.

Fast-forward to UFC 72 and Rory Singer (Pictures). MacDonald had definitely regained the confidence he displayed prior to his match against Herman. In his pre-fight interviews taped for the television broadcast, MacDonald exuded a confidence that brooked no dissent, claiming that he was better than Singer in all aspects of the fight game.

Then the bout started and it seemed initially that MacDonald's confidence would not be enough. Singer had a dominating round, scoring with two vicious knees before mounting the Canadian.

Prior to the bell, Singer locked on a tight-looking triangle choke just prior to the bell.

"We were at the cage right in front of Josh [Russell, MacDonald's BJJ coach] and before I even attempted any kind of escape I looked up at Josh and I knew it was getting very, very late in the round. And Josh said, ‘Jay, there's 15 seconds left in the round,' so I didn't even try to fight it or try to escape. I just figured I'd get myself 15 or 20 seconds extra rest going into the break between rounds.

"So I just sat there and waited out the round. At no point did I ever feel like I was in trouble, or that I felt an urgency to get out of there."

On the strong first round by Singer, MacDonald admitted that he was disappointed with his own performance. "I think I had a great warm up, then of course the [Tyson Griffin (Pictures)-Clay Guida (Pictures)] fight went the full distance, and by the time they get you out to the ring it's about 30 to 40 minutes after my good warm up before I made it into the octagon.

"So I think I started to cool down a bit, and it took me that first round to kind of figure out what I was going to do with Rory -- figure out his strengths.

"The start of the second round I came out a different fighter. And it's weird: I struggle with that, getting started in the first round.

"I had the same fight against Chris Leben (Pictures) -- a slow start to the first round. That's something I'm going to have to work on and overcome, because as the quality of opponent gets better I won't be able to give up that first round."

Overall, MacDonald was pleased with how things worked out. "I was happy. Like I said I never felt like I was in any sort of trouble at all in the fight. The triangle wasn't close in my opinion, and I virtually don't have a mark on me -- I have a little cut on the back of my head, which was from an accidental elbow, and a scrape on my toe from the canvas in the octagon and that's about it.

"You can't ask for much more than that. I got a victory and came away completely unscathed."

When asked about his opponent's abilities, MacDonald admitted that despite the strong showing in the first, he was pretty much the way he expected him to be.

"He was talking that he was going to beat me in the stand-up, and if you watch the fight he didn't even throw a punch, so I don't know if he was full of hot air or what.

"I wanted to stand up and trade. I wanted to have one of those Forrest Griffin (Pictures) type fights and throw down a little bit with him, but it didn't happen." MacDonald lamented. "I was in a little better condition going into that second round; I think he was starting to tire a little bit."

During the pre-fight press conference Singer made what could have been a tactical error by verbally going after MacDonald.

"I'm all for building a fight up, and Chuck (Liddell) does that really well by saying he's going to knock the guy out. And Quinton (Jackson) does it really well with his quote saying he's going to "whoop Chuck's ass,' and I think there's definitely a place in fighting for those comments. But when you go in a press conference and start taking personal attacks at people I think it was a little bit over the edge. It certainly irritated me a little bit -- lit a little fire under me and gave me that extra motivation to go out there and put Rory away just like I intended to do.

"Usually stuff like that doesn't bother me, and I won't say that it was a huge factor in the fight. It's not like I'll never talk to Rory Singer (Pictures) again if I see him, but leading up to the fight it probably wasn't a good idea for him to add a little more fuel to my fire and get me any more motivated than I needed to be."

Saying both UFC president Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva expressed their happiness with his performance, MacDonald said he wants to fight again as soon as possible.

"Like I said, I came out of that fight completely unscathed -- I didn't get suspended at all. So with the number of shows they're putting on right now, I told Joe that if he could get me back in there right away I'd certainly be prepared to get in there and get back at it."

If it were up to MacDonald, he'd be on the August 25 card in Las Vegas, which will feature Randy Couture (Pictures) as the main event, as well as Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) against Josh Koscheck (Pictures).

But whom would MacDonald fight?

"The important thing for me is that I'm winning, you know? I want the tough fights like I've always said to everyone. I don't know who they've got on tap. Okami has a win over Singer, I have a win over Singer, and we both have a loss to Franklin. Maybe an Okami fight would be a good match-up," he mused.

"Everyone's calling me the ‘TUF Killer,' so why not give me a shot at Kendall Grove (Pictures)? Let's see if I can keep the streak alive," he laughed.

"I'm still ‘The Athlete,' and I think that story's kind of played out now. There's not too many guys left from the TUF show that are in contention right now, but I would definitely love a shot at a fight with Kendall. I think that would be a great main event for a fight night maybe."

So now that's he's home, resting and relaxing, how does Jason MacDonald (Pictures) feel?

"I certainly feel a sense of accomplishment," he said with a slight whisper of contentment. "I said it in the post-event press conference in Ireland, that with the exception of Rich (Franklin) and Anderson Silva (Anderson Silva' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures), who I feel are slightly better than everyone in the middleweight division right now, I feel that I could beat any of the other middleweights on any given night.

"That's exactly how I feel and that's how I approach every fight now. I feel like I'm one of the top contenders in that division, and not only have I made it to the UFC, I've made it there and made an impact and that's certainly something I'm proud of."