RORY MACDONALD VS JON FITCH SET FOR APRIL BELLATOR EVENT

The Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix will continue to proceed along with the past quarterfinal bout to be booked, and I’ll give my thoughts on this 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 in the quarterfinals of this Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix if he takes on Jon Fitch in a yet-to-be-named event set for April 27 in San Jose, California. Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com broke the news. Here is the fourth and final quarterfinal bout in the championship. Douglas Lima conquer Andrey Koreshkov in their trilogy fight and Nieman Gracie upset Ed Ruth in another quartefinal matchups completed so far, together with 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 fight the winer of Page vs. Daley.
MacDonald (20-5) is 2-1 thus much in Bellator. In his first two Bellator fights, he looked like one of the best fighters on the planet as he submitted Daley and then beat Lima more than five rounds to win the welterweight title. Then he moved up in weight in his final bout when he took on Gegard Mousasi in his bid to become a rare Bellator double winner. But MacDonald got defeated in that fight, losing via second-round TKO. MacDonald will have had six months between the Mousasi and Fitch fights, therefore he should be good to go health-wise. However, the fact he took so much damage against Mousasi is painful. Then again, MacDonald was battling up a weight class for the first time. At welterweight, he’s clearly one of the best on the planet, and he owns a dominant win over present UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
Fitch (31-7-1) has made a run in the twilight of his profession. Now 40, Fitch is riding a five-fight win streak at the minute which includes a dominant win over Daley in his Bellator debut. At the same time, Fitch holds noteworthy wins over Jake Shields and Yushin Okami throughout his latest win streak, and he had been the PFL welterweight champion before signing with Bellator. Since becoming cut from the UFC in 2013, Fitch has gone 7-2 in WSOF, PFL and Bellator. He is no longer among the sport’s elite welterweights such as he was a decade ago, but he has a good wrestling foundation that can get him his hands raised.
Having said that, this really is MacDonald’s fight to lose. He should possess the takedown defense to maintain the fight on the feet, and in the standup there is no wonder MacDonald is the exceptional fighter. Fitch hasn’t won a fight by knockout since 2006, therefore he seems to have no path to success in this bout if he can not get it to the floor. Despite the reduction to Mousasi, I’d nevertheless peg MacDonald around a -500 preferred to defend his belt against Fitch and proceed on to the next round of the championship.
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