UFC 174: 11 Matches To Make For The Winners

2. Rory MacDonald

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGrCDoCe4P0 Oh Dana White. The MacDonald-Woodley fight was originally speculated to be a title eliminator, until White made clear that it wasn't. Of course, he hadn't helped things by saying it was a fight that would "definitely" put one of the fighters "in contention" but why on earth would the head of the UFC ever need to be consistent? Basically, Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown popped up on the radar as a more marketable fight, and that became the title eliminator of choice, with Lawler looking like a beast, and Brown on an impressive win streak. MacDonald hadn't helped things either, mailing in a few of his more recent performances. Then he came in an dismantled Tyron Woodley. White downplayed the win, saying that Woodley "chokes in big fights" - not a great thing to say considering that as a promoter, he still needs to, you know, book and promote the guy, and promote the guy who just beat him, but White has always been one to tell it the way he sees it. So now you have MacDonald, ranked second in the division behind Lawler, looking strong, but devalued, thanks to his own boss. If the winner of Lawler-Brown is getting the shot (read: assuming White doesn't flip-flop on it), then a fight against the winner of Hector Lombard vs. Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim is the only fight that makes sense, as all other fighters in the top 10 are either unavailable, have other fights, or have already faced MacDonald (a chance at avenging a loss to Carlos Condit might make sense for Rory at some point as well, but Condit has been out due to injury).