The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix will continue to proceed together with the last quarterfinal bout to be reserved, and I’ll give my thoughts on this brand new matchup in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Rory MacDonald vs. Jon Fitch, Bellator
Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald will put his belt on the line in the quarterfinals of the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix when he chooses Jon Fitch at a yet-to-be-named event set for April 27 at San Jose, California. Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com broke the information. This is the fourth and final quarterfinal bout in the tournament. Douglas Lima conquer Andrey Koreshkov within their trilogy struggle and Nieman Gracie upset Ed Ruth at another quartefinal matchups completed so far, with the Michael Page vs. Paul Daley struggle 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 fight the winer of Page vs. Daley.
MacDonald (20-5) is 2-1 thus much in Bellator. In his first two Bellator fights, he seemed like one of the best fighters in the world as he filed Daley and beat Lima more than five rounds to win the welterweight title. He then moved up in weight in his last bout when he took on Gegard Mousasi in his bid to become a rare Bellator double champion. But MacDonald got defeated in that fight, losing via second-round TKO. MacDonald will have had six months off between the Mousasi and Fitch fights, therefore that he ought to be good to go health-wise. But the fact he took so much harm against Mousasi is worrisome. Then again, MacDonald was battling a weight class for the very first time. In welterweight, he’s definitely among the best in the world, 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. Now 40, Fitch is riding a five-fight win series at the moment which comprises 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 was the PFL welterweight champion before signing with Bellator. Since getting cut from the UFC at 2013, Fitch has gone 7-2 in WSOF, PFL and Bellator. He’s no longer one of the sport’s elite welterweights such as he had been a decade ago, but he has a good wrestling foundation that can get him his hand raised.
Having said that, this is MacDonald’s struggle to lose. He should possess the takedown defense to maintain the battle on the toes, and in the standup there’s no question MacDonald is the superior fighter. Fitch has not won a fight by knockout since 2006, therefore he appears to have no route to success in this bout if he can’t get it into the ground. Despite the reduction to Mousasi, I’d still peg MacDonald about a -500 favorite to defend his belt against Fitch and proceed on to the next round of this championship.
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