Rory MacDonald has been thinking about hanging up his gloves. But after last weekend, the ‘Red King’ must know that the game is not on him anymore.
MacDonald announced his retirement from MMA after being knocked out in the first round last weekend after losing to Delano Taylor in the PFL playoff welterweight semifinal. On Wednesday, MacDonald explained that it was a long time.
“This thing has been on my mind,” MacDonald told MMA Hour Ariel Helwani. “Actually, I feel like it’s been a few games in and I’ve questioned it but I’m not ready. I feel like I can still bounce back in my career. I have a goal and I’m being Drive, I know I can do certain things in the practice room, but when the rubber meets the road, I can’t do it in the cage, so to speak. Unfortunately, you’re in the practice room and in those lights There’s a difference in what can be done. I just don’t have that certainty, that spirit, that heart to go there and get it done.
“Every time The fight, for a while, it’s been dwindling. I’ve seen it more and more. This season is my last cheer, basically — I’m all-in. I will do my best and if I succeed, I will keep working towards my goal, but if I can’t, it will be over. And this last fight, even if I played better and lost, or even if I won, the feeling I had in that fight confirmed to me that it wasn’t for me anymore. It’s not me anymore. So I have to listen. …
“Just face to face with your opponent in those lights, don’t want to be there, don’t want to break through that intensity of you when you’re fighting, when someone tries to Meet when attacking you. You feel that, that intensity. Usually you have some kind of resistance to it mentally and it doesn’t work for me anymore. I don’t have that passion anymore to continue doing this 100% myself thing, I think it’s a confirmation for me that I shouldn’t be doing it again.”
When asked he was considering leaving How long, MacDonald revealed, he first thought about it when he faced Gegard Mousasi for the Bellator middleweight belt in 2018.
“That’s when I fought Musashi,” MacDonald said. “I wasn’t prepared for that game as much as I should have been. That was the start, I think. After my injury in Lima and the injury in the second Lawler game, my head really started to suffer. Three months on my couch, unable to walk after the battle with Lima, and it’s just getting started – I try to ignore those voices, but your body and your flesh is yelling at you. I’m trying as much as possible Ignore it for a long time, but subconsciously it’s there. You can only take so much punishment over the years. You have to be willing to go through this, I think I’m a little overwhelmed.”
MacDonald noted that this change in mindset has coincided with a number of other life changes, especially in finding Christianity and starting a family, which left him “a little bit of a mess.” However, , MacDonald said, he was glad he kept fighting because he wasn’t sure he would have had the same sense of completion if he had walked away at the time.
“I think I need to. I need to get it out of my system,” MacDonald said. “Now, when I come out of that cage, obviously I’m disappointed to get knocked down, but I’m pretty calm about it. I’m sure I don’t want to fight anymore, if I might have hung it up before, I might be back in It, it’s going to be a much longer process than it is now. I just need to get anything done and get it out of my system, so to speak…
“It was a pretty hefty weight on my shoulders and fought for the last time, so it was definitely a relief. I feel like when I actually committed to retiring after this game, I felt like it was just a weight coming off me. My heart feels lighter…I feel good about my decision. I feel like the sport has run out of things I need to try to do. I really gave it my all and I put everything I could into my last push this year and it didn’t work out. I’m happy with what I’ve done. I did my best and I know that’s what I did and I can leave with a smile on my face. “
Although he was only 33 years old, MacDonald left the sport with impressive achievements. He was a Bellator Middleweight champion and challenged the UFC welterweight title at UFC 189 against Robbie Lawler in arguably the greatest fight of all time.
As for what happens next, McDonnell says he will “always be a martial artist” but is not sure how he will be involved in MMA as he has never been for fame or Celebrities have been involved in MMA.
“Professional, I think I might go down a different path,” he said. “I will always be a martial artist, so I will always train in the gym, that’s for sure. But as far as I’m involved in mixed martial arts, I don’t know. I don’t know how much I’m going to get involved. We’ll see how far this road takes me. …
“I never really got into the field for recognition or anything. Very touching, I received All this information, unbelievable. In my retirement, I never thought it would be like this. But I really have nothing to say. I play the sport to achieve personal goals. What’s being done in it is a very personal thing to me. I never really wanted to get any attention out of it. It wasn’t popular in the beginning, and now it’s become an important sport and people are starting to Follow it, it never really changed for me. I’m not interested in what people have to say or get on TV or anything like that. It’s not something I’m interested in doing, giving big speeches after a fight or getting any recognition. Moving on to the next thing, have a good time…
“Obviously, it’s scary. Leave everything I know. I started doing it at 14, started fighting professionally at 16, gave up fighting completely at 16 and became a world champion. So that’s all I know and now I have a family. So transitioning to another career is a bit scary, but I’m excited. This is a new journey and I look forward to what’s to come. “
