Rory MacDonald vs Stephen Thompson Preview | Who Wins?

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Rory MacDonald vs Stephen Thompson Preview

Rory MacDonald and Stephen Thompson are set to fight at UFC Fight Night 89 on June 18th, 2016 taking place in Ottawa, Canada. The winner of this fight is most likely going to challenge for the Title. Fight of the Year potential.

Rory MacDonald

Rory MacDonald has a record of 18-3 with a 72% finish rate.

What worries me about McDonald?

How much did that last fight against Lawler take off of him? It was a brutal fight and MacDonald could be a little gun shy now.

Advantages for MacDonald

1) Tough and Durable
2) Firas Zahabi- Thompson has trained with GSP so Firas should of picked up on some of his tendencies, techniques, and weaknesses – they brought in Raymond Daniels, and other high level karate champions, to help replicate Thompson’s style
3) Youth – 26 years old

What does McDonald need to do?

1) Stay out of kicking range- either boxing, clinching, or ground
2) Pressure

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson has a record of 12-1 with a 66% finish rate.

What worries me about Thompson?

1) How is his ground game? I believe he’s a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu
2) Has not fought in the championship rounds – If you can’t finish Rory in the first few rounds, how will that cardio be in round 4 and 5
3) He can be broken- Watch the Matt Brown fight – Between rounds 2 and 3 you can see the quit on his face

Advantages for Thompson

1) Fast
2) Unorthodox approach to striking – Switches stances – throwing weird kicks from both front and back leg
3) Confident-coming off a huge win over former Welter weight champion Johny Hendricks which was a one sided destruction

What does Thompson need to do?

1) Keep the fight in kicking range
2) Stay technical – Don’t get drawn into a brawl

Deciding Factor

Rory MacDonald is kind of like Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York when Bill the Butcher says “There’s a murderous rage in this one.” I really feel that will be the biggest factor in this fight. Rory will be a free agent after this fight. So take a guy who’s borderline psycho as it is, piss him off even more, make him feel cheated. He’s done everything for the UFC and he feels as if they cheated him. So imagine the murderous rage that’s built up inside of him. That’s all getting unleashed on Thompson. I feel whoever you put in front of MacDonald is going to sleep.

Matt – Rory MacDonald via 3rd Round Submission

Ingo – Stephen Thompson via 2nd Round KO

Magic 8 Ball – shows disdain for Rory MacDonald and picks Stephen Thompson to win