With GSP And Zahabi’s Support, MacDonald Poised To Inherit Crown In Two Years
By Micah Hinchliffe:
During last night’s airing of Ultimate Insider we got to take a peak into the renowned Tristar camp and hear from some of it’s most successful fighters as they prepare for UFC 145 in Atlanta, April 21st. Among these fighters was welterweight contender Rory “Ares” Macdonald, whom many believe to be the future of the 170 pound division and from his recent dominating performances, it’s clear to see why some people are comparing his rise with that of Jon Jones.
Despite his age, no one can deny that at 22, MacDonald has been rag-dolling serious competition such as Mike Pyle and Nate Diaz. Some even believe that if the third round of his fight with current UFC Interim Champion Carlos Condit had been allowed to continue that he would have indeed won the decision. Head Coach of Tristar Gym Firas Zahabi highlights on Rory’s talent:
“He’s very young, he hasn’t reached his peek whatsoever, he’s not 50% of what he’s gonna be in the next five years and thats the scary part of it all. In a few years he’s gonna go on a long winning streak that’s going to be worthy of the history books.”
Training partner and 170 pound kingpin Georges St-Pierre went on to agree with MacDonald’s seemingly limitless abilities:
“Rory Macdonald is a special fighter. He’s willing to step outside of the box and do something that nobody has done before, to get better and become a better martial artist.”
With no lack of ambition at all, Rory has clear ideas as to how he intends on becoming Welterweight Champion and possibly future Middleweight champion. He believes his technique is what is going to set him ahead of other fighters as he continues to develop in MMA. He believes that being so young is vital to his success in the sport as he has a lot more time then most UFC fighters;
“The focus on this fight and my training is I wanna develop such a high level of technique that I could fight higher weight classes, you know, all my moves will work against anybody and not just guys my size. There’s so many guys that have the potential to be champions and I believe in all the fighters here, but the next world champion of Tristar will be me I believe, and in a year or two I’ll be wearing the belt at 170.”
Could it be possible that Rory Macdonald is the first fighter to hold belts in multiple weight divisions at the same time? What’s clear is that Macdonald is one of the “new breed of fighters” that Dana White continues to refer to, a fighter that hasn’t just been training techniques in one aspect of martial arts his whole life, but has been training techniques of Mixed Martial Arts. At 22 years old and being in his first Co-Main event against Che Mills at UFC 145 in Atlanta, what is holding Macdonald back from achieving everything he has set out to do in the sport?
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About the Author
A young writer from London with experience in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. Currently trains at...
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so does that mean gsp is retiring or moving up a weight class then?
dont get ahead of yourself son
Rory who???gsp fan for life!
Rory is the real deal. Could very easily become the greatest martial artist the ufc has ever seen, he has more potential than Jon Jones.
Totally agree
He has tonnes of talent and natural ability. But, he still has to win against a couple top 10 guys to talk about him this way. It’s premature although his talent can’t be denied. He has to prove the mental side of his game; that he can think and win under pressure in the octagon.
he dominated condit for 2 rounds. condit pulled that fight out of his ass. and he absolutely embarassed diaz. i think its stupid not to talk about him as a top 10 fighter. hes on the fringe for top 5 in my opinion.
go back and watch that fight again. he did not dominate condit, unless you count taking him down and laying on him while getting face ****ed from the bottom, dominent. mcdonald looked like ET at the end of that fight.
+1, amen, NBK for life, and whatever the hell else you want me to say! Condit did more work from the bottom than Rory did from the top. Rory is a great fighter, and no doubt a future champ. But no one can say he dominated Condit.
I agree, why does everybody say Condit got dominated in that fight???
I wouldn’t say he dominated condit, but he did well.. He definitely does have a nice future ahead at his age.
GSP will drop to 155, mark my words. You will never see him middleweight because he is a small welterweight as it is.
Would be interesting to see him at 155, would be a cool match up tho I’m a fighter at 155. GSP vs JSP!
What?!…..GSP is one of the biggest welterweights.
my thoughts exactly! The only way GSP is going down to 155 is with 1 leg.
In his “off season” he walks around at 194
***** gsp wont step up in weight is is afraid to lose his size advantage …then when he runs into hardr n better striker he can sleep in them for 25min so he must be retiring
It amazes me how many dumb people there are on this website; writers, and commenters alike. GSP is a huge welterweight. He walks around at 200 and would lose all of his strength cutting down 50 pounds to make weight. It doesn’t make any sense, you guys who think hell ever fight lightweight need to learn some shit about how this all works.
^^^^i agree
So is GSP moving up or he?