Issue 068

October 2010

The UFC wunderkind is 21-years-old with a stellar 10-1 record. FO gets the inside info on his Fight of the Year contender against Carlos Condit.

The Internet’s keyboard warriors are fully behind the Canadian, who started training a mere age 14. With his superstar fighter friends and hard knock background great things could come of Rory MacDonald.

FO: Your fight with Carlos Condit at UFC 115 was much talked about because the bout was called off in Carlos’s favor with only a few seconds to go in the final round. What are your feelings on the situation?

Rory: “I agree with it. The ref had to do his job. I feel like I could have gone to the end obviously. I wasn’t tapping but I have no hard feelings for the ref or for Carlos. They both did their jobs the best they could. I didn’t do what I had to do so that fight was given to Carlos.”

You’ve been training since you were 14 but living on your own since you were 16, which is obviously extremely unusual. How hard was fitting training and going to school in with paying the bills?

“It was tough but it made me grow up fast. It was just another one of those life lessons that you just have to roll with and grow from.”

Did you have to work a lot of jobs?

“Yeah I had to work laboring jobs and construction, carpentry and stuff like that – just basically stuff that would get me a little bit of money while I trained.”

Which was your least favorite job?

“It was a laboring job on this mountain. It was building homes and I was basically the site rat, the lowest of the low. I hated that job. Whenever someone wanted something I would have to do it. I got the hardest jobs and got paid the least.”

Was it hard to fit training around your school day?

“Well basically I’d go to school, leave school, go to the gym and be the first one there and the last one to leave.”

Would you credit that kind of work ethic to your success in that case?

“Yeah. It wasn’t like it was a struggle for me – I enjoyed every minute of it. I wasn’t a super popular kid [at school] and I got bullied a little bit and I just enjoyed learning from the guys at the gym, making friends. I enjoyed my time there a little bit more than socializing at school.”

How did the other kids at school react to your training?

“At first they didn’t believe me. They just thought I was a weird kid that lied about it to get attention. But I didn’t really talk about it that much, other people did, and they put their own spin on it – it just gave them more reason to not like me. Eventually I started to get a lot of attention, people started finding out about it, then people started liking the fact that I did it. High school’s a weird thing.”

We hear Georges St Pierre is a friend of yours. How did that come about?

“Yeah, I’m good friends with Georges. Recently I’ve moved to Montreal to train at the TriStar Gym with him. So far it’s been amazing and I think I’m going to come into my next fight a lot better because of it. Me and Georges are really good friends.”

Do you have any hobbies outside of fighting?

“I like to play sports just recreationally. It would be nice to be a dual professional athlete, but I’ve put so much into fighting that I’m not good enough to be a professional at anything [else] anymore. It would have been nice to be a soccer player too but it didn’t work out.”

Is that your other ‘love’, so to speak?

“Yeah. I liked hockey too, and snowboarding, and baseball – pretty much everything. But, you know what? Actually to tell you the truth, I’ll probably make a pro boxing debut at one point. So we’ll see how that goes.”

Would that be at the same time as MMA or after you’re finished?

“It would be the same time probably. I don’t even know; right now I’m putting so much into MMA I can’t really think about what I’m going to do with boxing. But, one day I’ll get it figured out.”

You got a ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus recently, as you’re more than aware. What kind of plans do you have for that money? Sensible plans or less sensible plans?

“I’m just planning it right now, organizing it, saving it.”

So you’re not going to go out there and blow it on a fast car or anything?

“No [laughs].”

You’re into video games. Are you hoping to get yourself in the next year’s UFC Undisputed?

“I really hope so. That would be a trip. That’s something I’ve always wanted to have: my own character in a video game.”

Obviously you’re just starting out in your career at the moment, but when it’s all finished what kind of fighter do you want to be remembered as?

“Exciting, talented, well rounded. And I want to be remembered as the best of all time, if I can.”

Rory MacDonald spoke with Richard Cartey