Rory MacDonald sends a daunting message with announcement of Bellator debut vs Paul Daley
On Thursday, Bellator MMA announced that former UFC title challenger Rory MacDonald is set to make his debut fighting for their promotion.
MacDonald will face Bellator welterweight knockout artist Paul Daley on May 19 at Bellator 179 as the promotion makes its way back to London.
Bellator announced their signing of MacDonald back in August and surely many are eager to see the debut of the “Red King” in the Bellator cage.
MacDonald took to social media on Thursday following the fight announcement with a promotional image for the fight. MacDonald captioned the post, “MAY 19TH MARKS THE BEGINNING OF A BLOODY CHAPTER.”
MacDonald holds a 18-4 professinal MMA record and is coming off a two fight skid. MacDonald lost a UFC welterweight title fight against then-champion Robbie Lawler at UFC 189 back in July of last year. The “Red King” then went on to face current #1 UFC ranked welterweight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson where he ended up losing by unanimous decision in a five round main event.
After signing with Bellator, MacDonald spoke on The MMA Hour and told Ariel Helwani of his desire to become a two-division Bellator champion and will start off by getting the welterweight strap.
“My plans for Bellator are to fight for the 170-pound belt,” he said. “I’m going to take that belt off [Andrey] Koreshkov, and then I’m going up to 185 lbs. and I’m taking that too. I’m very focused on this, I want to be a two division champion.”
Although Koreshkov is no longer the welterweight champion after Douglas Lima was able to finish Koreshkov in their Bellator 164 title fight, MacDonald is surely eyeing whoever has the title but will have to get past the power of Daley first.
Who you got in the Paul Daley vs. Rory MacDonald matchup? Sound off in the comment section!
This article first appeared on 2/9/2017.
Topics:
Paul Daley Rory MacDonald
