Rory MacDonald admits retirement was a long time coming: “It’s not who I am anymore”

PFL welterweight Rory MacDonald has admitted that his retirement has been brewing for a while.

‘Red King’ is fresh off his knockout loss to Dilano Taylor at PFL 8 last weekend. The defeat was MacDonald’s fourth in his last five contests. Following the defeat, the 33-year-old decided to hang up the gloves and call it a career.

It was an announcement that caught some fans off guard, given the Canadian’s age and successes in the cage. MacDonald is just a few years removed from being a Bellator champion, and a UFC star.

However, as he’s revealed in an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the announcement was a long time coming. In fact, the Canadian was debating retirement as far back as his showdown with Gegard Mousasi in 2018.

Instead, Rory MacDonald fought on, but it was harder each time. Now that he’s hung up the gloves, he’s admitted that his heart hasn’t been in the sport for years. Following the loss to Dilano Taylor, MacDonald stated that he couldn’t convince himself to fight anymore.

PhotoCred: Sportsnet

“Every fight, for a while now, it’s been diminishing. I’ve seen it more and more. This season was my last hurrah, to basically — I was all-in. I was going to put everything I absolutely could into this, and if I was successful, I would just keep going with it and go toward my goals, but if I fall short, that will be the end. And this last fight, even if I had put up a better fight and lost, or even if I had won, just the feeling I had in that fight was confirmation to me that this isn’t for me anymore. It’s not who I am anymore. So I’ve got to listen to that.” (h/t MMAFighting)

Rory MacDonald continued, “Just being under those lights and face-to-face with your opponent and not wanting to be there, not wanting to push through that intensity that you meet when you’re in a fight, when someone’s trying to attack you. You feel that, that intensity. Usually you have some sort of resistance to that, mentally, and it’s just not there for me anymore. I don’t have that passion to keep doing this with 100 percent of myself anymore, and I think that’s confirmation to me that I shouldn’t be doing this anymore.”

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