

Photo by Andreas Brauning

When Rory MacDonald emphatically rag-dolled Nate Diaz back in 2011, talk of 'Ares' as a future champion intensified. MacDonald was touted as the next evolution in mixed martial arts—someone who had been training all elements of the game with one of the best camps in the world since his teenage years. The fact that this camp was Tristar and that he was training with Georges St. Pierre each day added fuel to the fire of anticipation.

Three years on, MacDonald's record reads like a who's who of the welterweight division. BJJ world champions, former UFC and Strikeforce champions, MacDonald has mixed it up with all kinds of fighters. There is a sole blemish on that record in recent memory, unfortunately it came at just the time that the world was hoping to see MacDonald knocked back a step.

The problem was that MacDonald's bout with wrestle-banger, Jake Ellenberger made narcoleptics of us all. Rory Mac showed everything his fans had feared would occur as a result of hanging around Tristar—he learned to throw a snapping jab like Georges St. Pierre, and how to time it in the middle of his opponent's attempts. MacDonald could break a man's will to attack before that man had even made a move. Unfortunately, MacDonald then decided he didn't need anything else. For fifteen minutes it was obvious that Jake Ellenberger wasn't getting past the jab, and would continue to oblige by jerking his face into it, but MacDonald did nothing to capitalize.

A fan would have to be truly committed to his fight elitism to pretend that MacDonald versus Ellenberger was anything but the afterbirth which slithered out in the octagon in the wake of Robbie Lawler's breathtaking destruction of Bobby Voelker just minutes before. Rory MacDonald seemed like the future, but fighting like that... no one wanted that future.

Robbie Lawler, meanwhile was a throwback. The Mark Hunt of the welterweight division. He was the comeback story of the old veteran making his way in the new age that we all love. The most exciting fighter in the welterweight division, Lawler had added a versatile butterfly guard to his game and, after years of refusing to spar in his training camps, Lawler was back to sharpening his claws on his team mates. And boy, did it show.

So when Robbie Lawler stepped into the cage with Rory MacDonald in November, 2013, MacDonald found himself cast as the bad guy. Everyone loved this new Lawler, and wanted to see him make a title run. The lastthing they wanted was to see him stuck on the end of MacDonald's effective but far from fight ending jab all night.

Of course, what was exposed in MacDonald that night was the same fault which was exposed in his team-mate, Georges St. Pierre as he took on Johny Hendricks. Both MacDonald and St. Pierre had become too reliant on their jabs, and when faced with a southpaw opponent—where their lead hand would be constantly checked and swatted—they had nothing left to show. Denying MacDonald's jab for most of the fight, Lawler would occasionally provide MacDonald with the opening, and immediately counter with his brilliant right hook.



Ain't no jabbing through that.

MacDonald was thumped, dropped, and lost the decision.

If we have seen anything in MacDonald's last few outings, it is a will to throw more. It's niceto sit behind a jab and know that you own the best weapon a fighter can have. It's a port in the storm—a fight is supposed to be a scary place, yet it just got an awful lot easier. But if the safety of that long jab is taken away for whatever reason (fighting a southpaw, or a fighter who uses their rear hand to check well, or even breaking your own hand while jabbing), you need answers.

Brutal body kicks were on show against Demian Maia, and despite Maia's early success on the ground, MacDonald showed himself the superior athlete. MacDonald was more than capable of hanging with Maia when he was fresh and at his most dangerous, and as the rounds wore on, MacDonald only got stronger.

Next up was Tyron Woodley who had just notched the biggest wins of his career by taking out Carlos Condit and Josh Koscheck. The jab was there, and MacDonald was always ready to shoulder roll the right hand, but high kicks and body shots kept Woodley unsure of whether he should be standing upright or crouching.

Most recently, MacDonald fought Tarec Saffiedine, the brilliant Belgian kicker who drubbed Nate Marquardt for the Strikeforce title. The fight wasn't perfect but it showed exactly why MacDonald, with the help of the Tristar team, consistently wins against all different kinds of opponents. From the opening of the bout, MacDonald kept stepping forwards, and against a power kicker that is the absolute best thing one can do.

A kicker like Saffiedine excels when the opponent takes a step back. When you're back-tracking that lead leg will always be trailing you out of the danger zone. A leg with no weight on it is a piñata hanging from your hip. To take kicks you either have to pick the leg up and point the shin towards the kick, making a sturdy block, or put your weight down on that leg and brace for the kick.

Moving forward constantly against a kicker plays havoc with their sense of distance. At any point they could kick and by the time the kick gets to you, you're already inside of it and have a hold of their leg or are throwing a pair of punches while they're still on one leg.

It was no secret that MacDonald is the better offensive wrestler and a phenomenal ground and pounder. All of Saffiedine's plans involved staying off the ground, yet every time he kicked while MacDonald was moving forward, he risked being taken down.

By the third round, MacDonald was walking Saffiedine routinely. Catching the Belgian along the fence, MacDonald landed a scintillating C-cut combination and starched him. Notice that the overhand forces a bend at the waist and a crouch, bringing the opponent's head into the path of the rarely effective lead uppercut.

It was MacDonald's first finish since April 2012. Exhilarating stuff, but where does MacDonald stand now?

Champion in the Making?

All of this has been leading to the inevitable question of whether MacDonald can fill his team-mate, Georges St. Pierre's shoes. St. Pierre was the greatest welterweight the UFC has ever seen, and in terms of adaptability perhaps the best fighter we have seen in MMA yet. The problem is that MacDonald has all the advantages St. Pierre had—a skilled team and corner, he even has St. Pierre around him half the time—but just can't follow the commands nearly so well.

If you told St. Pierre to do something, he'd do it without fail, even if he took some knocks in the process. When he wanted to take away Josh Koscheck's right hand, Koscheck whiffed it all fight. The same with Thiago Alves' left hook and low kicks. The same with B.J. Penn's jab. The list goes on and on.

Rory MacDonald just hasn't shown himself to be anywhere near as consistent. After training months to neutralize Demian Maia, he was mounted in the first round. After presumably sparring with southpaws for months, he was absolutely stumped when he couldn't jab Robbie Lawler. And against Tarec Saffiedine, it wasn't exactly a flawless performance up to the knockout.

Whenever Rory forgot that he was supposed to be moving forward, he'd go back to jab-and-bounce-out mode, and this is where Saffiedine picks up some of his best kicks. He'll let you jab at him and nail your leg on the way out. Firas Zahabi's consistent comments between rounds were that Saffiedine only has low kicks, so MacDonald should stop letting Saffiedine have them.

While Saffiedine is a southpaw, and might seem like a reasonable assessment of how MacDonald would deal with the Lawler problem now, he's not the same kind of southpaw. Hell, he's not even a true southpaw—he switches stances constantly. But most importantly, not all southpaws are the same. Lawler completely eliminates the lead hand unless he wants to counter it. Saffiedine does nothing to eliminate the lead hand, he simply shows punches with little intention of landing, hoping to back the opponent up and land the low kicks.

Similarly, Georges St. Pierre fought the southpaw Nick Diaz, who did little to shut down the champion's jab, but when Johny Hendricks (generally thought to be a worse boxer) fought St. Pierre, he completely neutralized the Canadian's lead hand and landed his own frequently.

MacDonald seems like a stripped down version of St. Pierre. He lacks the creative set ups for his wrestling, and he easily forgets what he's supposed to be doing. The second round of the fight with Saffiedine looked completely different to the first while MacDonald struggled to remember what he was supposed to be doing. It was the same kind of mental fragility we saw against Carlos Condit and Lawler. Once he gets hit, he starts abandoning the game plan and Firas Zahabi is left shouting hoarsely for him to get back on track.

Put simply, St. Pierre snowballed through fights, getting stronger and stronger until hardened vets like Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy were resigned to losing by the fourth round. Rory MacDonald seems to start strong, falter, get back to it, falter and so on until the fight is over.

I am eagerly hoping for MacDonald to evolve into the dominant force he could be, but I feel he might end up as a high end gate keeper. But then Robbie Lawler was the definition of a middle of the pack fighter two years ago and is now within a hair's breadth of the UFC title.

Pick up Jack Slack's ebook, Fighting Karate at his blog Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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