Former UFC welterweight contender Rory MacDonald bagged the Bellator 170-pound title against Douglas Lima at Bellator 182 in January with a unanimous decision verdict. It was a five-round fight that left the “Red King” with a nasty swollen leg, leading him to conclude that it was the “worst physical pain” he had to endure in a fight.
But it did not seem too bothersome for MacDonald, at least according to Scott Coker. On Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, the Bellator CEO revealed that the Tristar Gym fighter already wanted to jump right back in a couple of weeks after the Lima fight.
“Two weeks later, he calls me and he’s like, ‘I’m ready to schedule a fight,’” Coker told Luke Thomas (via MMA Fighting). “I said, ‘Rory, no, no. You need to put on the brakes here for a second. Let’s just rest.’ He said, ‘No, no, I’m ready. I’m just about ready to walk. I still have a limp, but I think I can start training in another week.’ I’m like, ‘This guy is nuts.’”
Coker felt compelled to step in for MacDonald’s sake, as he is aware of the latter’s eagerness to remain actively fighting.
“He just wants to fight, he wants to stay busy,” Coker said. “He wants to get out there and compete. So, I think it’s my job to slow him down. He’s chomping at the bit. And he wanted this fight with Gegard Mousasi and Gegard wanted to fight him. And they wanted to test themselves.”
MacDonald will jump up to 185 pounds to challenge Mousasi for the middleweight title at Bellator 206, which takes place on September 29th in San Jose, California.
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