As one of the most high profile of the UFC to Bellator converts, Rory MacDonald jumping ship on the world’s largest MMA promotion raised eyebrows.
MacDonald will finally make his Bellator debut on May 19th at the SSE Arena in London, where he will meet the challenge of another former UFC fighter in Paul “Semtex” Daley. While Daley’s departure was unequivocally down to the scorn of UFC President Dana White, MacDonald’s was, in contrast, of his own doing.
The Canadian welterweight’s last contracted fight in the UFC was a decision loss to Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in June 2016 – even prior to this, MacDonald was flirting with the idea of leaving. Consequently, an impasse at the negotiations table left MacDonald with the option of signing to Bellator.
In August 2016 “Red King” was officially unwrapped and displayed at Bellator 160, leaving fans of the UFC with serious questions to be asked of their efforts in keeping fan-favorites such as MacDonald in the promotion. Following the unveiling of the controversial Reebok deal by the company in 2015, which effectively ended fighters’ abilities to gain sponsorship on their fight gear in favor of a homogenized uniform, fighters have spoken about how the loss of that revenue affected them. MacDonald has echoed this sentiment, and went as far as to say that if he would have stayed with the UFC he would retired “broke”.
Watch the full clip above.