Rory MacDonald is stone-faced and precise with his decision-making and skills in the cage when he fights. The same is true when he speaks or types on a keyboard.
That was on display Thursday when the UFC-turned-Bellator star participated in a Reddit AMA.
The 28-year-old Canadian covered many topics including entrance music, fighter nicknames, what he eats for breakfast, advice for aspiring fighters, and why he thinks Bellator gloves are better than UFC gloves.
However, it was his comments about former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler and soon-to-be-former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones that stood out.
MacDonald fought Lawler twice in the UFC, losing both times. He dropped a split decision in a title eliminator at UFC 167 in 2013 then suffered a fifth-round TKO loss at UFC 189 two years later when Lawler was champ.
Their UFC 189 tilt is widely considered to be among the greatest fights in UFC history. MacDonald was bloodied and battered but up on the scorecards heading into the final round. He went down and the fight was stopped, though, when Lawler connected with a left hand that shattered MacDonald’s nose.
When asked by one Reddit user if he thought Lawler was on performance-enhancing drugs during that fight, MacDonald responded by writing: “I’m convinced he was.”
In August 2016, during an appearance on The MMA Hour, MacDonald implied that he had a reliable source inform him that Lawler might not have been “clean” when they fought.
Although Lawler passed all of his drug screenings before and after the fight—in fact, UFC 189 was the UFC’s first pay-per-view event under the USADA testing protocol—there were some eyebrows raised when his test results were made public.
MacDonald added that fighting for a UFC title is the proudest moment of his MMA career thus far and that his second loss to Lawler changed his views on how he trains what he focuses on when developing his skill set.
So, we’ve established that MacDonald clearly dislikes cheating, which is probably why he was blunt when asked for his thoughts on Jon Jones’s latest failed drug test.
MacDonald called it, “Shameful, like every other guy that does this crap and hides it, yet gloats during victory…It’s a true shame to see grown-ass men and woman doing that.”
The Kelowna, B.C., native made his Bellator MMA debut in May at the SSE Arena in London, England where he dominated Paul Daley, submitting the knockout artist in the second round of the Bellator 179 main event.
It’s unclear exactly what’s next for MacDonald but in all likelihood it will be a welterweight title bout against Bellator’s current 170-pound champ Douglas Lima sometime either later this year or in 2018.
MacDonald also mentioned he thinks he’ll fight unbeaten Michael “Venom” Page at some point in 2018, and that middleweight bouts with both Gegard Mousasi and Chael Sonnen could also happen.
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