The Ghost of the UFC Will Haunt Rory MacDonald

A wise man once said, if you want to make a good impression, it never hurts to beat up Paul Daley and choke him out inside of two rounds.

Wait a sec…I’m the one who said that, just now.

Okay, scratch the whole “wise man” part.

Still, Rory, the former UFC top contender, got the next chapter of his MMA career off to a strong start this past Friday at Bellator 179, defeating Daley, who’s as dangerous during the fight as he is immediately after it.

I think that reference has only gotten funnier over the last 7 years, if you ask me (and you probably shouldn’t)…

Ever since Rory signed with Bellator last August, after losing his last two UFC fights against then champion Robbie Lawler and future 2-time title challenger Stephen Thompson, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding Rory for making the jump over to Bellator, being one of many UFC fighters over the last few years to test the waters of free agency and decide the Viacom money looks a lot greener.

Wait, did I say “hype”? I meant to say “indifference,” at least from the fans.

There’s been some attention paid to Rory over the last few months. Most of it came when he initially signed and showed up on Bellator television, although it hardly elicited the same response as something like seeing Scott Hall and Kevin Nash on Monday Nitro, that’s for sure.

Rory got a few headlines out of the situation, from the news itself and from subsequent interviews, providing comments on why he chose to leave the UFC and the various criticisms he has of the current product and the business decisions they have made which he didn’t personally agree with, such as the Reebok deal taking away every UFC fighter’s ability to wear sponsors in the cage. That’s a sticking point that has led quite a few UFC fighters, such as former contender Ryan Bader, to jump ship.

Part of the reason for all the attention was the surprise that another top UFC fighter, one who had just fought for the title a year earlier, was leaving for the competition (or being allowed to leave). The other part of it was the fact that, with his newfound freedom, Rory decided to be more candid with the media and show some of his personality, which has made for quite a few interesting interviews considering Rory is one of the most genuinely unsettling-looking dudes in MMA.

I don’t want to bash “The Red King,” even if that nickname is begging me to, since the whole “Canadian Psycho” thing has been a joke for a while because of the fact that, while you could say that calling Stephan Bonnar “American Psycho” was a play on his crazy character and fighting style, Rory genuinely looks like someone who has a hooker’s head in his freezer.

No offense, future champ.

That’s at least the good news for Rory, as this win over Daley should put him directly in line for a shot at the Bellator Welterweight Championship.

Does Rory deserve a shot at the title because of a win over Paul Daley? I don’t know, but who else are they going to give the fight to?

Also, who cares who they give it to? It’s Bellator.

That appears to be the prevailing attitude concerning Rory’s win over Daley, as it will likely be the attitude for Rory’s future title fight, as it will likely be the attitude for Rory’s potential future title reign or anything else he does in his Bellator career:

Who cares?

Why? Because it’s not the UFC.

As critical as we as a community may be and continue to be about how the UFC conducts its business, you can’t deny the job they’ve done in building up those three letters – UFC – as the place for top MMA competition.

No one else comes close. The only times Bellator has managed to turn some heads has been due to freak show fights that everyone acted like they didn’t want to watch but totally wanted to watch.

Rory is not on the same level as those freak show fighters in terms of drawing power and popularity. Neither are most of the recent UFC castoffs, which is why Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva is headlining the Bellator Payperview and Bader is fighting Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Phil Davis on the TV card airing before it.

I guess it could be reasoned that Bellator is using the name value of two UFC guys to get fans to tune in on free TV, where they are likely to garner more viewers, to help promote the Payperview, but it does kinda send the same message UFC sent when they chose not to resign those fighters, as well as some of the other ones who left, like former lightweight champ Ben Henderson.

That message?

Who cares? Who cares about them? No one was paying to see them so no big loss.

And the truth? UFC was right, even moreso now because, while the prospect of seeing Rory face off with fighters like Lawler or Thompson were exciting ones, who cares about seeing him fight Douglas Lima?

I mean no offense to Lima, as he’s a solid fighter and has been a mainstay of the Bellator roster for many years, but, as a representative of the best that Bellator’s welterweight class has to offer, who has he beaten? Who are his best wins against? Daley? Ben Saunders, an exciting fighter but one who accomplished nothing in three separate UFC stints? More MMA fans probably know Douglas’ brother Dhiego just because he’s on The Ultimate Fighter, as sorry a promotional vehicle as that has been for the last decade.

Beating Rory would be the biggest win of Lima’s career but, because it would happen in Bellator and not the UFC, it likely won’t be seen as that big a deal among fans. The conversation the next day won’t be about how good Lima is but how bad Rory has become, similar to the tone after Henderson’s loss to Andrey Koreshkov, although Bendo’s Bellator career so far has just been weird to say the least.

And if Rory wins? Big deal. He’s beaten a Bellator guy who’s faced next to no ranked competition. Or he beats Lorenz Larkin, another UFC walkout who did nothing in the UFC and only got a title shot in Bellator because Rory had the Daley fight already booked. Either way, it’s a win that does nothing to elevate Rory’s status or drawing power because he’s no longer facing UFC caliber opposition and he doesn’t have the mic skills to come across as a big deal in spite of it.

The good news for Rory being in Bellator is he’s out from under the thumb of the UFC and is able to dictate the direction of his career a bit more freely. The bad news is he works for a new master that doesn’t have the roster, the reputation, or the resources (or desire) to elevate its talent the way said talent would like.

If you’re a fighter and you’re in this sport to be the best in the world, I don’t see why you’d ever want to fight anywhere other than the UFC. I mean, yeah, they don’t always treat their fighters that great and maybe you can make better money elsewhere but you can’t say you’re the best if you aren’t fighting the best and the best are still in the UFC. Even if half the roster ups and leaves, the perception will remain for the casual fan that, in the UFC, you are seeing the best the sport has to offer. The UFC is where it’s at.

Anywhere else? Meh. The only fighters who have benefited from Bellator exposure have been ones who were unknown before they got there, like Michael Chandler and the Pitbull brothers, however many of them there are. Of course, if they really want to capitalize on that exposure, they’d use it to try and get some marquee fights in the UFC, like Will Brooks has.

I guess it all comes down to why someone like Rory is still fighting. If he was just looking to get the best deal financially to provide for himself and his family, then maybe he made out all right. I mean, the potential for bigger payouts exist in the UFC but we all know how stingy they get with guys who don’t “move the needle.”

Maybe Bellator was willing to pay him more up front for the duration of the contract he signed, but I doubt the potential for a significant increase in pay comes beyond that. Well, not unless Rory continues to dominate and ends up getting a call from a UFC looking for hot welterweights and willing to offer him more money than when he was getting his soul taken by Ruthless at UFC 167. It could happen.

That’s really the best scenario for Rory at this point because, if he’s in Bellator because he wants to be the best, it’s just not going to happen, or at least it won’t be perceived as such by anyone who isn’t being paid to say otherwise. He’s just going to keep fighting and beating nobodies or, at best, other UFC refugees, until he loses all motivation to keep fighting and retires.

I honestly wonder how he’s staying motivated right now, especially when a fighter he beat soundly, Tyron Woodley, is the UFC Champion. How is Rory going to feel if he’s Bellator Champion and the guy he beat is the one getting the respect that comes with being a UFC Champion (or would if he wasn’t building up a reputation for being a whiny bitch because he complains that no one likes him, causing more people to not like him)?

Could Rory use his Bellator success as a way to hop back into the UFC and topple Woodley? It’s not out of the question. Rory is still fairly young so it seems reasonable he makes it back it to the UFC. And, when he does, I’m sure there will be plenty of fans wondering where he’s been all of these years…

It sucks but that’s how it is. You can fight the UFC but, unless you’re really willing to fight back, or you massively alter your expectations, you’re always gonna lose in the end. You’re never going to be able to completely escape from their shadow until you leave the sport entirely.

Maybe these fighters should fight back. If only they had someone to rally behind…

Hey, maybe Kobe Bryant is the man we need to finally get the UFC roster to make the push towards unionization. That’s the message he put to the fighters at the big fighter summit over the weekend, right? It was either that or he was suggesting the fighters come together for the private Snoop Dogg concert on Sunday night.

Yeah, I bet Rory is upset about missing Snoop Dogg more than anything else. He might also be upset because he has to return some videotapes…

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.