UFC Ottawa saw two of the elite tactical technicians square off against one another in Rory MacDonald and Stephen Thompson.

UFC Ottawa was being billed as a match-up between two of the most evenly matched welterweights in the world. The end brought a clear winner, but the fight itself was a fascinating duel of striking tactics.

Before the main event, the entire main card was thoroughly entertaining. Joanne Calderwood showed the brilliant Muay Thai that earned her a UFC shot, Olivier Aubin-Mercier secured another rear-naked choke, Donald Cerrone became the first man to ever knockout Patrick Cote and the Fight of the Night was a total brawl between Steve Bosse and Sean O’Connell. All of the fights are worth a watch, but today we’re talking about the main event between the two welterweight phenoms.

The fight yielded no finish, but there is still plenty to talk about today. As always with the “Move of the Main Event” we look at one maneuver, or play, that was a significant part of a fight. As with traditional sports, a play can be run out of different set-ups and against different defenses, but if the maneuver is working why stop?

From the get go, the fight looked to be a methodical barn burner, as MacDonald adopted a stance that was almost identical to Thompson’s. MacDonald’s wide, side on karate-like stance made him an extremely narrow target for Thompson. A narrow target means that linear strikes have a higher chance of missing. MacDonald’s wide base and even weight distribution also afforded him the ability to bounce in and out of range easily.

Above we see Wonderboy and MacDonald squaring off in opposite stances. Because of the width of their legs, and their turning almost entirely to the side, their lead arms and legs are much closer to one another. That closeness is punctuated due to the southpaw-orthodox match-up. Their stances have opposite hands and feet in the lead, but the lead hands are being kept high and active to thwart the other man’s jab.

After some thorough hand-checking we see Thompson attempting to use one of his bread-and-butter techniques, his side kick, to spear MacDonald. MacDonald easily bounces away from the kick due to his newly adopted wide stance.

We’re about one minute into the fight and both men need to adopt a new strategy if they want to start scoring. Thompson generally stays on the outside and obliterates his man with long side on kicks, but MacDonald’s stance and strategy is discouraging that method.

As for MacDonald, he is a jab heavy fighter, but due to the hand checking, the jab likely won’t find its mark. MacDonald’s secondary rangy weapon is his rear leg front kick, but the angle for that strike is all but gone due to Thompson’s narrow body position.

Thompson quickly took advantage of the southpaw versus orthodox match-up and began to look for the boxing 101 technique that every bar stool brawler calls for when watching a fight. Thompson started to step his lead leg outside of MacDonald’s to line up his rear hand with MacDonald’s face. Once in position Thompson would launch a stinging left hand, and get out of danger before MacDonald could launch a counter strike. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, MacDonald wants to clinch, but Thompson breaks free.

As the fight wore on, MacDonald was forced to get more desperate. Thompson was picking up rounds by stinging the Canadian, and largely avoiding damage himself. As MacDonald got less cautious, Thompson found more openings for his left straight. As the left straight found its home more, Thompson’s confidence grew and he was bouncing between stances, throwing straight punches from either side. Still, the money punch was the left straight from a number of different circumstances.

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Below, MacDonald tries to advance towards Thompson, but the Karateka steps slightly across his body with his back foot. That step lines up his hips for his patented side kick. With Thompson’s feet reset he throws a left straight that stuns MacDonald. MacDonald then tries to walk forward, but Thompson dazes him with a right hook over the top of MacDonald’s guard before circling out to his right.

In past fights, some have said Thompson could get into trouble with his blitzing combinations. Thompson has shown a tendency to chase opponents with straight punches while not moving his head, or bringing his hands back to his face to protect himself. Against MacDonald, Thompson was diligent in not over-committing on any of his strikes. The result was a pretty thorough beating by Thompson over the course of five rounds.

When MacDonald wasn’t stuck on the outside, he had some solid moments. When MacDonald was able to put Thompson on the cage, he had a few nice moments. With his back nearly touching the fence Thompson had no room to kick MacDonald, and no room to retreat and set-up counter punches. Instead of going forward and risk initiating a clinch with MacDonald, Thompson would opt to circle out laterally at the last moment. The problem came when MacDonald would do so with his hands low.

Above, MacDonald pushes Thompson to the cage while hand checking. MacDonald shifts, stepping his right foot forward into a switched stance. Now in southpaw, MacDonald throws a right hook which bounces off Thompson’s head, prompting Thompson to circle out quickly before the Canadian gets a chance to pin him on the cage. As Thompson escapes the advancing MacDonald, he runs straight into a second right hook from MacDonald which turns his head around.

In the lead-up to the fight we discussed a path to success for MacDonald, involving attacking space with hooks and round kicks. When one attacks the space around their opponent, the circling fighter runs into strikes, stopping their movement and adding power to the shots. Over time, the shots to the legs and body adds up, and the fighter that was relying on movement and wide circling is much less mobile. It would have been interesting to see how the fight would have played out if MacDonald was able to get his hooks and round kicks going earlier, but he had his own strategy for a reason.

One particularly noteworthy event from the fight was MacDonald repeatedly attacking Thompson’s legs with heel hooks. MacDonald was using the notorious “Imanari roll” as early as the first round to threaten Thompson with a submission.

MacDonald notices Thompson is standing deep and heavy into his stance, so he takes it upon himself to dive on Thompson’s leg. As MacDonald hits the ground and begins to snake his legs around Thompson’s, the latter turns away and begins to pull his leg out. One more pull of the leg frees it for the American, and they’re back on their feet.

If MacDonald was closer to Thompson he may have had better luck with the explosive submission entry. When MacDonald dove on Thompson’s leg, the latter’s knee was already free of entanglement giving him too much wiggle room to escape. Unfortunately for MacDonald, the submission attempts did not pan out, but it was nice to see the Tristar-based fighter doing his best to advance the grappling meta-game of MMA.

As of late, Tri-Star has been bringing Gary Tonon, Gordon Ryan, and Eddie Cummings up to train leg locks with their team. In a previous article we went over the viability of leg locks in MMA. Leg locks are often open and ready for the taking due to fighters being uneducated in them, and the amount of standing that happens in MMA grappling as top fighters look to ground and pound. There were plenty of heel hook attempts from fighters that had trained with Tri-Star, but no finishes with the submission Saturday night.

This loss puts MacDonald in an odd place. He’s on a two fight losing streak, and his contract just expired. He has said he will test the free market, but one has to wonder if his stock has been seriously affected with him coming off of a loss.

Thompson, on the other hand, could not be in a better position. The elite striker has run through the competition, with four of the wins on his current streak coming by way of knock out. Thompson is undoubtedly next in line for a shot at the welterweight title after Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley square off at UFC 201.

UFC Ottawa is in the books and fans have a new challenger for the welterweight crown. Thompson could not be in a better spot following his clear-cut decision victory over MacDonald. We have a bit of a break from UFC action, but in a few weeks time Rafael Dos Anjos will defend his belt , Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha will have their rematch and then UFC 200 will be upon us. Until then, keep your eyes on Cage Pages for more fight coverage.