SAN JOSE, Calif. – Welterweight champion Rory MacDonald couldn’t deny something had changed inside him after a majority draw against Jon Fitch in their Bellator 220 headliner.
Although MacDonald retained his belt and advanced to the Bellator welterweight grand prix semifinals against Neiman Gracie, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.
“I don’t know what it is. … It’s hard for me to pull the trigger now, I guess,” MacDonald said afterward during his post-fight interview, which was met with boos at SAP Center. “I don’t have that killer inside. It’s really hard to explain, but I hesitate now a little bit. I don’t know what to say. It wasn’t my best performance.”
MacDonald spent minute after minute on his back against Fitch, taking ground-and-pound as he tried in vain to get up. When the fight was on its feet, MacDonald repeatedly damaged his opponent with straight punches and kicks. But he banked heavily on a kimura from the bottom that never materialized, and Fitch was able to retake control on the canvas.
After 25 minutes, two of three judges scored the fight 47-47 with one seeing it 48-46 for Fitch.
A big difference MacDonald noted in the buildup to the fight was his devotion to God. He told MMA Junkie that the past 10 weeks of his life had been a slowly increasing intensity in his faith. Despite that, he expressed no misgivings about his chosen occupation and said it complimented his spirituality.
But with such an inconclusive result, questions seemed to percolate in MacDonald’s mind.
“As a man, I feel like God has really called me the last little while,” he said. “I don’t know. He’s changed my spirit, changed my heart. It takes a certain spirit to come in here and put a man through pain.
“I don’t know if I have that same drive to hurt people anymore. I don’t know what it is. It’s confusing, but I know the Lord has something in store for me. He was speaking to me in here tonight. I don’t know. It’s a different feeling.”
For complete coverage of Bellator 220, check out the UFC Eventssection of the site.
