Interviews

Rory MacDonald not overlooking upcoming opponent Che Mills

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One of Canada’s favorite fighters, Rory MacDonald (12-1), is set to get his 2012 started with a fight against Che Mills this weekend at UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans. The 22 year old Quesnel native has not fought since August of 2011 due to injury and looks to start 2012 off with a bang.

Many people feel that Mills isn’t deserving of a fight with MacDonald, but he is the first to down that non-sense and isn’t surprised by the fight.

No I wasn’t surprised. I guess they (UFC) just want to build me up. I mostly think the media has been saying that because they don’t know a lot about him, but he’s a dangerous fighter and he’s somebody people shouldn’t over look. He’s dangerous everywhere. I think he has some great striking. It’s something I’m prepared for.

Having not fought for 8 months has been a set back for MacDonald, but has definitely helped him refine is game so he can get to the next level.

I feel I’ve improved everywhere. That’s always been my goal is to improve and be great at all parts and be well rounded.

Dana White stated the other day that Rory is the next Georges St-Pierre. Fighting more often will definitely get him to that status.

Over the next two years my goal is to fight three times a year. I’d be happy with that but lately that hasn’t been happening.

Unfortunately as he stated, that hasn’t been happening lately. The fact is he has been plagued with injury. You have to take it all in stride however when you are training to be the best in the world, with the best in the world.

Yeah it’s been frustrating. I’d say it’s the intensity that I’ve put into training and the guys that I’m training with. I’m training with a lot of top guys and so my body gets beat up a lot. So it’s probably related to volume of guys I train with on a given day.

The Canadian has fought both in Vancouver and Toronto, which was an awesome experience to fight in front of his home country.

It’s really cool. I mean there was a few of us who fought back on the Toronto card, but to have a few of my teammates fighting at this event is definitely cool.

The whole media side of MMA is a rather new experience for the 22 year old. He has had to mature very quickly in front of the camera.

I think I’ve improved when it comes to dealing with all of this attention. I think I’m getting better when it comes to talking to the media. It’s been strange getting a ton of attention because all I want to do is train and fight, and sometimes doing media can be tiresome. But I think I’m getting better at it.

Rory will look to improve his record to 13-1 at UFC 145 on April 21 as he takes on the very tough and talented Che Mills.

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Jeremy Brand started up this lovechild called MMASucka.com back in 2009. It began as a hobby project and has turned into much more. In his spare time, you can find Jeremy on the mats, as he is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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