By Canadian Press

Canadian Rory MacDonald put Bellator title on the line against veteran Jon Fitch

Apr 26, 2019 | 2:46 PM

Canadian Rory (Red King) MacDonald puts his title on the line Saturday night when he takes on veteran Jon Fitch in the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix in San Jose, Calif.

In the co-main event of Bellator 220 at the SAP Center, women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (9-0-0) makes her third title defence against Veta Arteaga (5-2-0).

Firas Zahabi, MacDonald’s longtime coach, raised the pre-fight temperature when he labelled Fitch a coward and a cheater.

“Let’s be honest, he’s a cheater … It’s highly immoral, it’s a crime in my opinion,” Zahabi said in an interview with DAZN.

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“In my opinion, Fitch is not an authentic fighter,” he added.

Fitch (31-7-1 with one no contest) was suspended for nine months and fined US$2,500 after failing a drug test — for testosterone — ahead of his unsuccessful World Series of Fighting title challenge against Rousimar Palhares in December 2014.

Fitch, who said he was going through tough times in the period in question, called the decision to take testosterone “the stupidest thing.” 

Asked about Zahabi’s comments, he told the MMA Hour: “I don’t care, I don’t live my life caring what other people say or think.”

The 41-year-old Fitch is a battle-hardened veteran who becomes the first MMA fighter to contest titles with Bellator, the UFC and the Professional Fighters League/World Series of Fighting. The former Purdue wrestling captain, who showed tremendous grit in a 2008 loss to then-UFC champion Georges St-Pierre, has won five straight since the Palhares debacle.

Saturday’s winner will face Neiman Gracie (9-0-0) in one future semifinal. The other semifinal has Douglas (The Phenom) Lima (30-7-0) meeting Michael (Venom) Page (14-0-0). Rapper-actor 50 Cent is offering a cash prize of $1 million to the tournament winner.

As defending champion, the 29-year-old MacDonald (20-5-0) will put his title on the line every time he fights in the tournament.

After leaving the UFC in 2016, MacDonald submitted Paul (Semtex) Daley in his Bellator debut before claiming the welterweight title with a unanimous decision over Lima in January 2018.

A bid to move up in weight and challenge for the Bellator middleweight title ended badly last September when champion Gegard (The Dreamcatcher) Mousasi stopped him in the second round of a one-sided battle.

Getting married two weeks before the fight did little for his focus. And knowing he did not have to cut weight, his nutrition suffered.

“I had a bit of a dad-bod going on,” said MacDonald, a native of Kelowna, B.C. who now makes his home in Montreal.

“I never really pushed deep waters like I usually do for a fight and focus mentally,” he added. “It was just kind of like ‘Yeah, I’ll train somewhat hard. I’ll get through the wedding and I’ll just fight and however it’ll go, it’ll go. I mean I’m going up to middleweight, it’s a win-win. If I get beat up like I did, I’ll move on and go back to my thing.’

“I just didn’t stress enough about it. I didn’t focus. I didn’t care.”

He feels his focus is back where it should be. He has changed up his training, adding a new kickboxing coach and returning to fitness guru Jon Chaimberg.

“I feel like I have that intensity back in my training,” he said.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press