Firas Zahabi On Rory MacDonald Finish: He Would’ve Knocked Out An Elephant

No. 2-ranked UFC welterweight Rory MacDonald got what may rank as his most pivotal win in the main event of last Saturday night’s (October 4, 2014) UFC Fight Night 54 from the Scotiabank Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, knocking out former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine with a vicious third round finish (watch highlights here).

The win perceivably put MacDonald in line for a title shot at the winner of UFC 181’s main event title rematch between returning champion Johny Hendricks and No. 1 contender Robbie Lawler, the last man to beat MacDonald inside the octagon. It’s a fight that most have expected MacDonald to earn since he debuted in the UFC, but it’s also the fight that “Ares” is now calling for as he did in his post-fight interview.

That’s a tough request to argue against, as MacDonald has taken apart No. 7 Demian Maia, No. 3 Tyron Woodley, and No. 9 Saffiedine inside of 2014. It’s been a busy year for MacDonald, and his head trainer Firas Zahabi thinks that there are simply no fights left for him other than a title shot. Zahabi offered up his take of the situation on The MMA Hour today:

“How many more fights are on the table? If you look at the top-10, who else would be eligible? Everybody’s pretty much booked or [MacDonald] has beat. I don’t see who’s really out there who makes sense. I think the only thing that makes sense now is the winner of Hendricks and Lawler. I can’t think of anybody else.”

There aren’t many other fights for MacDonald outside of a bout with No. 5-ranked Matt Brown or a rematch with No. 4-ranked Carlos Condit, but both fighters are injured and MacDonald has most likely done enough to get the title shot.

On the other hand, if he had coasted to a decision, something that UFC President Dana White has criticized him for in the past, MacDonald may have been labeled a boring fighter like his good friend and training partner Georges St. Pierre was towards the end of his illustrious run as champion. With his recent knockout, Zahabi believes MacDonald did enough to get the masses talking about him:

“When he beat (Tyron) Woodley, they said he’d get the title shot after that. But it wasn’t enough. They gave it to Matt Brown and (Robbie) Lawler as a (title) elimination bout. It’s because they have more exciting performances and that’s what the market is. People want to pay for what they want to see, and I understand that. It’s fair. I think now people want to see Rory.

He finished with an incredible left hook that I think would’ve knocked out an elephant if it’d hit an elephant. I think people believe now that it would be an exciting match against whoever’s champion in the spring.”

Indeed many more UFC fans are most likely excited to potentially see MacDonald fight for the belt now that he has scored a finish, something he was lacking since UFC 145 in April 2012. MacDonald has always been a highly technical fighter, but now Zahabi believes that “Ares” has added that all-important killer instinct to his game:

“We learned to play the game right. Everybody was telling him: ‘you’re not finishing, you’re not finishing.’ I think in round three (against Lawler) he wanted to go for a finish instead of staying with the gameplan. I really believe that if you follow the steps, you’ll finish. If you think about finishing, you don’t finish. That’s my opinion.

That’s what he did on Saturday. He didn’t think about finishing. He just focused on the gameplan and going out there, reading and reacting; not planning out what you’re going to do and executing it, but reading and reacting, and sticking to what we’ve done in training, and it was beautiful. The knockout came, it came out naturally, it came all of a sudden, and that’s how KOs should come about.”

Zahabi speaks with the words of a master, and it appears that his tutelage has MacDonald at an all-new level of both technical expertise and stopping power. Still only 25-years old, the surging Phenom has earned a chance to sit back and wait to see who wins between Hendricks and Lawler.

It was always thought to be a foregone conclusion that MacDonald would be UFC welterweight champion. We could now be entering the beginning of that time.

Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie for USA TODAY Sports