The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix will continue to proceed along with the past quarterfinal bout to be reserved, and I will give 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 the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix if he chooses Jon Fitch in 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 championship. Douglas Lima beat Andrey Koreshkov in their trilogy fight and Nieman Gracie upset Ed Ruth at the other quartefinal matchups completed thus far, together with all the Michael Page vs. Paul Daley struggle set to take place in February. The winner of MacDonald vs. Fitch will take on Gracie on the side of the bracket’s semifinals, while Lima will combat the winer of Page vs. Daley.
MacDonald (20-5) is 2-1 thus far in Bellator. In his first two Bellator fights, he looked like one of the greatest 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 his final bout when he took on Gegard Mousasi in his bid to be a rare Bellator double champion. However, MacDonald got defeated in that fight, losing via second-round TKO. MacDonald will have had six months between the Mousasi and Fitch fights, so 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 up a weight class for the very first time. In welterweight, he’s definitely one of the very best on the planet, and he owns a dominant win over current 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 series at the minute which includes a dominant win over Daley in his Bellator debut. As well, Fitch holds noteworthy wins over Jake Shields and Yushin Okami during his latest win series, and he was the PFL welterweight champion before signing with Bellator. Since becoming cut from the UFC at 2013, Fitch has gone 7-2 in WSOF, PFL and Bellator. He is no longer one of the game’s elite welterweights such as he was a decade ago, but he still has a solid wrestling base that may get him his hands raised.
That being said, this is MacDonald’s struggle to lose. He should possess the takedown defense to maintain the fight on the feet, and at the standup there’s no wonder MacDonald is the superior fighter. Fitch hasn’t won a fight by knockout since 2006, so he seems to have no route to success in this bout if he can not get it into the ground. Even with the loss to Mousasi, I would nevertheless peg MacDonald around a -500 preferred to defend his belt against Fitch and proceed on to the next round of this championship.
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