The first bout of the night features an interesting clash between Rory “The Waterboy” MacDonald and Mike “Quicksand” Pyle. These two fighters are on two seemingly different paths, with MacDonald the up and coming star, and Pyle the grizzled veteran who has admitted that he is most likely fighting for his job here.
Rory MacDonald – One of the youngest fighters on the UFC’s roster, at only twenty two years old, Rory is also one of the Welterweight divisions fastest rising stars. He is primarily a wrestler, who also specializes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing. Being so young has not been a burden on the still green MacDonald, as he has thwarted the likes of Mike Guymon at UFC Fight Night and also Nate Diaz at UFC 129, a card featuring his hero and fellow Canadian, George “Rush” St. Pierre.
His only loss in the octagon so far has been to a very game and very talented Carlos Condit, where he actually dominated the fight for the first two rounds before he was stopped by Condit’s elbows in the third round.
MacDonald started his career off in King of the Cage, and took a 2-0 record with him when he signed a four fight deal with the UFC. His only other misstep, if you can call it that, other than Condit, was having to pull from a November 20,2010 fight with former WEC champ Matt Brown because of injury. The fight would have been an interesting affair because of MacDonald’s young age and the fact that Brown has beaten men like Urijah Faber in the past.
Mike Pyle – The aforementioned grizzled veteran of this fight, Mike Pyle, began training professionally at age 17, in Birmingham, Alabama. Taking a Taekwondo class, one of his instructors told him about cage fighting, and when he learned what it was all about he just had to take it up.
Pyle has quite the impressive resume coming into this fight. His first professional fight, in 1999, was against a significantly larger Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. He lasted all three rounds with the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, only losing by unanimous decision. Coming into this fight, he is on a mildly impressive 2 fight win streak, with a unanimous decision victory over John Hathaway and another unanimous decision against the very talented Ricarda Almeida. His most impressive victory came against everyone’s favorite man to hate, Jon Fitch, when he became and still is the only man to submit him.
Pyle has a versatile background. He is a brown belt In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Muay Thai fighter, and also has a strong wrestling base. It also bears mentioning that he is a trainer at one of the top teams in the world, Xtreme Couture.
MacDonald Vs. Pyle – Two very similar fighters here. Not necessarily in their backgrounds, but how they both tend to fight. You should expect this fight to go to the ground early and often, with MacDonald taking whatever stand up war there is to be had.
Tempting to go with experience in Pyle, but MacDonald will continue his rapid ascension up the Welterweight ranks and win by submission here.
