Rory Mac: Speed bump, or less upside than we thought?

The biggest upset by far last night (measured by betting odds) was the -430 Rory MacDonald getting plastered around the ring by the resurgent Robbie Lawler.

Is this just a question of MacDonald needing to rethink his gameplanning and urgency in how he fights, and we'll see him fight for the belt before long?   Or are there serious holes in the kid's game and it was always premature for people to try and anoint him as the next big thing from Canada.

@P4P I believe 5-rounders against aggressive guys with decent cardio are the bane of Rory's existence. As I previously explained, he doesn't know how to deal with getting hit. He's used to dominating so thoroughly in his fights that, so far in his career, he hasn't shown the ability to actually fight through adversity. When the going gets tough, Rory gets his ass handed to him. He's also shown a rather bothersome penchant to slow down a lot in the third round. Extrapolate his gassing problems into the 4th & 5th rounds and you can see why people are skeptical of his chances of beating Condit, Hendricks, GSP, etc. Personally, I even see Matt Brown as a semi-problematic matchup for Rory. Guys that have bad cardio are gonna lose to Rory 9 times out of 10. I don't see Woodley or Ellenberger as guys that will beat Rory unless they land a flash knock down in the first round, but a guy like Condit that can take Rory's best shot and still keep coming forward and fighting back is going to be a difficult task for Rory due to his penchant for shying away after getting hit.

Right now maybe. What about in 2 years? 4 years? Rory hasn't even scratched the surface of what he will be. When you're young and still have a lot to learn and you're fighting guys in their prime, yeah you will lose a couple. 

He´s 24. Is that not his prime? It´s not like Rory Macdonald is still 20 years old, this IS the time for him to prove he´s as good as everyone keeps saying. 

@p4p I would've agreed with you except last night happened. 3 and a half years ago he received his first loss in essentially the exact same way (minus it going to decision) that he lost last night. If he hasn't grown enough to fix the problems he had over 3 years ago, then he likely won't in his career. The younger the fighter is, typically the faster they get better. Rory's 24 instead of 20, and he hasn't fixed what he needed to when he was 20. Bad sign for his future.

@ben haha you think Rory has peaked at 24? Wow. I don't even know how to respond to something that asinine.

@zarog I agree with you on the issues that Rory has. He will fix them no doubt. It's not like Lawler is a bad fighter. The guy has been awesome and he won a split decision. No reason for panic if you're Rory. He will get back in the gym and learn from this fight. He's got great coaches/training partners and a very healthy desire to be great. He'll get there in time.

I personally don't think that should have been a split, i thought Robbie clearly won that fight.

Oh yeah I forgot. Everyone is a ******* judge on Tapology.

I like it that more and more people are sharing their opinions on scoring. Since it's often so controversial with the judges its interesting to see the larger consensus of opinion.

Don't act like a fool p4pgoat, even your mama scored that for Robbie...

MEDIA SCORES
Adam Martin Sportsnet.ca	29-28	Lawler
Brent Brookhouse BloodyElbow.com	29-28	Lawler
Nathan McCarter BleacherReport.com	29-28	Lawler
Luke Thomas MMAFighting.com	29-28	Lawler
Craig Amos BleacherReport.com	29-28	Lawler
Mike Whitman Sherdog.com	29-28	Lawler
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com	29-28	Lawler
Jordan Breen Sherdog.com	29-28	Lawler
MMAJunkie.com	29-28	Lawler
John Pollock Fight Network	29-28	Lawler
Chase Raymond BJPenn.com	29-28	Lawler
Jason Floyd TheMMAReport.com	29-28	Lawler
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com	29-28	Lawler
MMAWeekly.com	29-28	Lawler

* Edited at 11.17.2013, 7:03 PM ET *

God forbid fans have an opinion on how they scored the fight. I guess we shouldnt do rankings either because the UFC has official ones and we shouldnt predict fights because odds do that


As far as Rory, I think his biggest problem is the very thing people have been hyping the **** out of, his lack of in depth training in one discipline. That and the fact he tries to do as little as possible to win a fight.

* Edited at 11.17.2013, 7:10 PM ET *

That's funny I never argued who won. Did I? Lawler won the fight. Rory did ok but Lawler did a little better. All that I am saying is that Rory will be the future champion of 170 regardless of losing last night. Nice try though on trying to presume I said something I didn't say.

He made the top 10 without ever beating a top 10 WW. He then earned his ranking by jabbing his way to a UD over a top 10 in Ellenberger, but then gets handled in his 2nd top 10 test. He was obviously over ranked. 

I think Rory is great, but I never saw this "GSP 2.0" ********, I basically told people Rory is the white Lima the UFC just slept on signing Lima when he was the 20 yearold prodigy smashing on guys he was supposed to lose to in MFC and ****. 

Want to hear something ironic? Rory's best performance in the UFC has been the fight against Condit he lost and Condit has improved by far greater margins than Rory since then. Rory bought his own hype and just got his ass whooped, lets see how he bounces back but I never bought the hype. I buy dat Lombard and Amagov hype though. 

@Live2wrestle Exactly. Every high elite UFC fighter has a trump card that they could rely on should things turn out worse. Quick examples:

Cain Velasquez - Wrestling
Junior Dos Santos - Boxing
Jon Jones - Wrestling
Alexander Gustafsson - Boxing
Chris Weidman - Wrestling
Anderson Silva - Muay Thai
Georges St-Pierre - Wrestling
Johny Hendricks - Wrestling
Anthony Pettis - Taekwondo
TJ Grant - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Jose Aldo - Muay Thai
Chad Mendes - Wrestling
Renan Barao - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Dominick Cruz - Wrestling
Ronda Rousey - Judo
Miesha Tate - Wrestling
Demetrious Johnson - Wrestling
Joseph Benavidez - Wrestling

The champions and number one contenders of every division are all extremely well-rounded fighters but they also have that one trump card that they could always rely on should they ever be in trouble because they specialize in it.

Rory MacDonald does not have that. He is a Jack of all trades, but the master of none. He's like a younger, boring, unlikable Michael Bisping.

Unless he becomes some crazy finisher there's no way he gets the belt @p4p. The cardio is just not there, he can't do 5 rounds. And like Anik said, he's not great at anything. 

And no, cardio isn't something you can improve that drastically.

I think you guys are changing the complexion of the question. It was is he over-hyped and not over-ranked. The difference being, hype talking about potential where as ranking state your current value.

Over-hyped? I don't think so, I think his upside is still limitless (though there's a lot of mental and physical work to be done).
Over-ranked at #3? Without any shadow of a doubt.

Considering the general consensus was that he'd run right through Lawler and was destined to be a champion, the question is when? I think he was very over hyped. Look there's a lot of guys I believe have what it takes to become a champion even if it sounds crazy. For instance I've thought Amagov and Nelson had what it took for a few years now, does that mean I'm confident it will happy? Of course not. Most people spoke as if it was almost a sure thing about Rory, that he was GSP 2.0, blah blah blah. He was over hyped. He's a top 10 guy, I have him between 8-10 he could be a champion one day. I would not be astonished but I seriously doubt he ever will. Rory talked about going to 185 and getting that belt too, which I thought was hilarious he'd have to put on 20lbs of sheer muscle not to get ape ****** by Middleweights but his fans acted like what he was saying was some sort of a reality. 

I've been against the Rory hype train for a while, the kid isn't even very active. At his age he should be fighting 3, 4 times a year really making a name for himself. His Ali Shuffle was so bad 10,000 white MMA fans died of embarrassment during the BJ Penn fight. Rory has a long ways to go, his biggest win was that pathetic performance against Jake he refused to even own up to. Rory's good, he's not the second coming of GSP, he's not even GSP 0.5 at this point in my opinion. 

He's 24, I'm always excited to seen his progression and in general to see him fight. I sort think he should of left Tri-Star, playing second fiddle to GSP just isn't healthy, Tri Star doesn't produce many great fighters it was really built around GSP and Firas and GSP's relationship, I think a lot of gyms have more to offer Rory if he would give them a chance. 

Rant over, I think he's been over ranked and rated.