Scott Coker says Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald will probably return “sometime In February”

We won’t be seeing Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald return to the cage anytime soon.

That’s according to Bellator President Scott Coker who confirmed with MMAJunkie that MacDonald suffered another broken nose injury following his loss to middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 206.

“He broke his nose,” Coker told MMAjunkie “I know that whatever he needed to do, he already did it. He said, ‘I’m ready to go, I’m going to start training in a few weeks.’ I said, ‘Time out. Time out. Just relax.’ He’s an animal, man. He just wants to keep training and fighting.”

Rory MacDonald (20-5) suffered his first loss under the Bellator banner when he was finished via strikes in the second round by the current middleweight champion. It was the first time since July 2015 that the Canadian was finished in a fight. The 29-year-old has now lost three of his last five fights, including setbacks against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Robbie Lawler, where he also broke his nose.

The Tristar standout is set to face former UFC title challenger Jon Fitch (31-7-1) in the Welterweight Grand Prix at an undetermined date. Coker says MacDonald has been keeping him updated on a regular basis.

“Rory’s been texting me every day, and he’s been keeping me updated. He’s the kind of fighter that wants to fight tomorrow. If you ask me, he’ll fight sometime in February. If you ask him he’ll fight sometime in January. I think we have to just help him take a skip and just put the breaks on this, Rory. It’s fine. We can wait another three or four weeks for your nose to heal and due time to heal and come back and be 100 percent.”

The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix already kicked off with former champion Douglas Lima defeating Andrey Koreshkov in their trilogy matchup. For more information on the tournament, check out this video from Bellator MMA which outlines the brackets in the tournament

When do you think we’ll see Rory MacDonald back in the cage?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/12/2018.