RORY MACDONALD VS JON FITCH SET FOR APRIL BELLATOR EVENT
The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix will continue to move along with the last quarterfinal bout to be reserved, and I will offer my thoughts on this brand new matchup in the present MMA odds and ends.
Rory MacDonald vs. Jon Fitch, Bellator
Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald will put his belt on the line from the quarterfinals of this Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix if he takes on Jon Fitch at a yet-to-be-named event set for April 27 at San Jose, California. Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com broke the news. This is the fourth and final quarterfinal bout at the championship. Douglas Lima conquer Andrey Koreshkov within their trilogy fight and Nieman Gracie upset Ed Ruth at the other quartefinal matchups completed thus far, with all the Michael Page vs. Paul Daley fight set to take place in February. The winner of MacDonald vs. Fitch will take on Gracie on that side of the bracket’s semifinals, while Lima will fight the winer of Page vs. Daley.
MacDonald (20-5) is 2-1 thus much in Bellator. In his first two Bellator fights, he seemed like one of the best fighters in the world as he filed Daley and then beat Lima more than five rounds to win the welterweight title. He then moved up in his last bout when he took on Gegard Mousasi in his bid to become a rare Bellator double winner. However, MacDonald got crushed in that struggle, losing via second-round TKO. MacDonald will have had six months between the Mousasi and Fitch fights, therefore he should be good to go health-wise. However, the fact that he took so much damage against Mousasi is worrisome. Then again, MacDonald was fighting a weight class for the very first time. In welterweight, he is definitely among the very best in the world, and he even owns a dominant win over current UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
Fitch (31-7-1) has made a run in the twilight of his profession. Now 40, Fitch is riding a five-fight win streak at the minute which comprises a dominant win over Daley in his Bellator debut. As well, Fitch holds notable wins over Jake Shields and Yushin Okami throughout his latest win series, and he had been the PFL welterweight champion before signing with Bellator. Since getting cut from the UFC at 2013, Fitch has gone 7-2 in WSOF, PFL and Bellator. He’s no longer one of the sport’s elite welterweights like he was a decade ago, but he still has a solid wrestling base that can get him his hands raised.
Having said that, this really is MacDonald’s fight to lose. He must have the takedown defense to keep the battle on the toes, and in the standup there is no wonder MacDonald is the superior fighter. Fitch has not won a fight by knockout since 2006, so he seems to have no route to victory in this bout if he can not get it into the ground. Despite the loss to Mousasi, I would still peg MacDonald about a -500 preferred to defend his belt against Fitch and move on into another round of the championship.
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