The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix will continue to move together with the past quarterfinal bout to be booked, 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 in a yet-to-be-named event set for April 27 at San Jose, California. Marc Raimondi of all MMAFighting.com broke the news. This is the fourth and final quarterfinal bout at the championship. Douglas Lima conquer Andrey Koreshkov within their trilogy struggle and Nieman Gracie upset Ed Ruth at another quartefinal matchups completed thus far, with all the Michael Page vs. Paul Daley fight set to occur in February. The winner of MacDonald vs. Fitch will take on Gracie on that side of the bracket’s semifinals, while Lima will combat the winer of Page vs. Daley.
MacDonald (20-5) is 2-1 so far in Bellator. In his first two Bellator fights, he looked like one of the best fighters in the world as he submitted Daley and beat Lima more than five rounds to win the welterweight title. He then moved up in his final bout when he took on Gegard Mousasi in his bid to be a rare Bellator double winner. But MacDonald got defeated in that fight, losing via second-round TKO. MacDonald will have had six months between the Mousasi and Fitch fights, therefore that he should be good to go health-wise. However, the fact that he took so much harm against Mousasi is worrisome. Then again, MacDonald was fighting up a weight class for the first time. At welterweight, he is definitely among the best on the planet, and he owns a dominant win over present UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
Fitch (31-7-1) has made a run at the dusk of his profession. Currently 40, Fitch is riding a five-fight win streak at the moment which includes a dominant win over Daley in his Bellator debut. At the same time, 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 in 2013, Fitch has gone 7-2 in WSOF, PFL and Bellator. He’s no longer among the game’s elite welterweights such as he was a decade ago, but he has a good wrestling foundation that can get him his hands raised.
Having said that, this is MacDonald’s struggle to lose. He should have the takedown defense to maintain the battle on the toes, and in the standup there is no question MacDonald is the superior fighter. Fitch has not won a fight by knockout since 2006, therefore he appears to have no path to success in this bout if he can not get it into the ground. Even with the loss to Mousasi, I’d nevertheless peg MacDonald about a -500 preferred to defend his belt against Fitch and move on to another round of the championship.
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