Rory MacDonald Disappointed By Paul Daley’s Trash Talk

Former UFC welterweight title contender Rory MacDonald is set to make his Bellator MMA debut against Paul Daley at Bellator 179, and he would be the first to say that he is a counter-talker. He lets his opponent talk first, and then he responds. However, he has had some issues with getting his opponent to open up about their upcoming headlining bout. Aside from Daley calling out MacDonald following his latest vicious knockout win, Daley hasn’t had much to say, which has surprised some people including MacDonald.

“Unfortunately, Paul hasn’t been as himself in that way,” MacDonald told MMAjunkie Radio. “He’s been pretty respectful most of the time besides a couple things he said recently, but I was kind of hoping he would lip a little more.”

Daley did dish out some trash talk during a recent conference call with the media to promote the upcoming event. In particular, it was about MacDonald’s heart after a fifth-round TKO loss to Robbie Lawler in a previous fight at UFC 189. Other than that, this build up has not exactly been what was expected due to the status of this key welterweight bout, and for those who were hoping to get more trash talk between the two fighters, this is not Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor.

“I just, at that point, I was done on my feet, and I had to take a knee, and the ref stepped in. I think if he thinks I’m an easy-to-quit kind of fighter, I think he’s in for a rude awakening.”

At the end of the day for MacDonald, he might think that the trash talk has not been what it could be, he still has respect for Daley, who is a KO specialist.

“He’s a one-hit KO kind of guy, and those guys are always a pain in the ass through the whole fight to deal with because you have to be on 100 percent of the time,” MacDonald said.

Bellator 179 takes place on Sunday, May 19, 2017, at the SSE Arena in London, England. The prelims will air on online at 7 p.m. ET while the main card will air on tape delay at 9:00 pm EST on Spike TV.