Rory MacDonald is set to make his Professional Fighters League debut this Thursday at PFL 2. Canada’s “Red King” has been waiting for a while, with the coronavirus pandemic wiping out the entire 2020 season.
In the interim, MacDonald (21-6-1) has relocated his training to Sandford MMA, in part due to pandemic restrictions in his native Canada. He’s also coming up on the six year anniversary of a fight many consider one of the greatest of all time: his UFC 189 welterweight title fight with Robbie Lawler.
MacDonald himself believes that it’s one of many great fights out there. “I appreciate people who like that fight,” he told Cageside Press during this week’s PFL 2 media day. “Obviously it would have been nice to be on the winning side of it, but it goes down in some kind of history of the sport. It propelled my name in the sport, so I’m grateful for it.”
Regarding the restrictions in Canada that have led to MacDonald heading south to train, he believes that “the government in Canada’s really overreaching their power. They’re trying to make a lot of changes to our country, and there hasn’t been much resistance. There’s been a lot of changes happening in my country for the worse, in my opinion. It’s pretty upsetting.”
Canada has implemented multiple lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, though they have varied province to province. In Ontario, travel outside your community is currently restricted, but airports (under federal regulation) remain open to international travelers, with minor restrictions on COVID hot spots. The country is currently battling a third wave, but as with the travel issue, regulations have been all over the map. In Montreal, Quebec, where the famous TriStar gym is located, and where MacDonald trained in the past, gyms were allowed to stay open for private lessons with limited numbers — but frivolous police visits to the facility led to head coach Firas Zahabi eventually barring them from entry.
“Why is the mall open and gyms are closed?” Zahabi asked, speaking to the Montreal Gazette earlier this month. “If it’s truly a pandemic, then close the mall.”
“COVID’s just slamming the brakes on our entire country. We have no economy. They’re really putting pressure on gyms to stay closed,” MacDonald said Monday. “It’s an issue that as Canadians we all need to be worried about.” The welterweight pointed to the success of areas that have opened up as a pattern he hopes his home country can follow. In the meantime, vaccine rollout continues at a snail’s pace.
For MacDonald, the news is better. He has a fight Thursday with Curtis Millender to look forward to. Millender is stepping up on short notice for this one, after David Michaud was forced out due to a heart condition. Both Rory MacDonald and Millender are veterans not just of the UFC, but Bellator MMA as well, where MacDonald served as welterweight champ.
When it comes to adjusting to his new opponent, MacDonald said that “he’s a taller guy. Just more mentally, just making my adjustments. Because I know, through years of experience, how to fight taller kickboxers and things like that.”
“There really wasn’t a lot of time to adjust,” noted MacDonald. Luckily, “the work was pretty much done at that point. I’m very confident in my ability to just on the fly so those kind of opponent changes doesn’t really effect me, because I feel very confident fighting a broad range of different styles.”
Watch the full PFL 2 2021 media day interview with Rory MacDonald above.
