Rory Macdonald: The Fighter Who Is In No Man's Land

Even though Rory Macdonald has been a top contender in the UFC welterweight division, as we head towards 2016 it is becoming increasingly clear that he has hit a crossroads when it comes to his future in the welterweight division. Macdonald has already faced a good amount of the fighters who are considered to be borderline to real contenders within the UFC welterweight rankings. Therefore no matter whom Macdonald faces in his next fight, he won't need to showcase how he has potentially improved as a fighter after the rematch against Robbie Lawler. Due to the fact that Macdonald can beat most of the welterweight division by using his regular game plan that is keeping his opponent at distance by constantly throwing left jabs, right front kicks to body and mixing in with some takedowns. For example lets say Matt Brown is his next fight if he beats Kelvin Gastelum, Brown has likes to constantly move forward and throw a lot of right high kicks, overhead rights and left hooks when his opponent back ups. Macdonald can easily stop Brown right in his tracks by using his regular game plan. All of the sudden instead of constantly moving forward Brown is thinking about how to get around the jab and how not to get taken down. As a result of this, there probably isn't going to be any further interest in the three fight between him and Lawler because some MMA fans will see Rory using his normal game plan to beat fighters and say how is the three fight between them going to be different than the other two fights.

Furthermore, there is a possibility that Rory Macdonald isn’t getting a title shot for another 1-2 years due to the fact that Carlos Condit is set to face Robbie Lawler in January and Tyron Woodley was promised a title shot after that. On top of this, if GSP and Nick Diaz return at some point in 2016 they’ll most likely get title shots ahead of Rory because their fights have a greater appeal towards casual fans.