Former UFC welterweight contender, GSP acolyte, and all around strange guy Rory MacDonald is one of the biggest names in MMA to depart the UFC in recent months. Following a series of ‘Fight of the Year’ nominated scraps that probably took years off his life, the UFC gave him a lowball offer and refused to seriously negotiate. That, combined with the way they had nuked fighter sponsorships with the Reebok uniform deal, pushed him out the door to Bellator where he’ll be fighting knockout artist Paul Daley on May 19th in London.
Rory recently spoke to LondonReal about a variety of different subjects, and as usual, Rory is his unusual self. What else can you expect from someone whose unofficial nickname is the ‘Canadian Psycho’?
When asked about how the sport of mixed martial arts could be better, he had a lot of violent ideas.
“The knees on the ground to the head, the kicks to the head on the ground. A lot of the elbows, headbutts, they’d have to be in it,” he said casually, as if discussing the kinds of vegetables he enjoyed in soups. “There were some crazy fights back in the day by Mark Coleman. He dominated. The fact that headbutts aren’t allowed, that’s a really crappy thing.”
Headbutts were pretty much the first attacks taken out of the sport alongside relentless pounding of the genitals. It took longer for kicks to the head of a grounded opponent to become phased out, and you can still watch in horror as fighters take a soccer kick to the head in certain parts of Asia and South America. But in Rory’s mind, these attacks make the sport more pure. So does one long round, another staple of oldschool no holds barred fighting.
“Maybe one ten minute round, or two ten minute rounds, or one twenty minute round or something like that,” MacDonald said. “Or at least scoring the fight as a whole, rather than a per round basis, because sometimes I watch a fight and I’m thinking ‘this guy won the fight, but on my scorecards, that guy won.’ It’s kind of weird like that.”
Sounds like what Rory wants is a time machine back to the good old days. And while that may not be possible, at least he still fights with the reckless abandon synonymous with fighters of yore, having no issue pummeling and getting pummeled in order to deliver a fight that fans will talk about for years to come.
You can watch the full LondonReal interview with Rory MacDonald right here.
