It’s been no secret that Rory MacDonald wanted big things from his transition to Bellator. He dominated Paul Daley in his debut and then won a war with Douglas Lima to finally become a world champion. After he defends his title against whoever is next – most likely Andrei Koreshkov – MacDonald wants to become Bellator’s “Champ Champ”.

Let’s give what the audience wants to see.

— Rafael Carvalho (@RafaCarvalhoMMA) March 11, 2018

“[Rory MacDonald] didn’t have a great performance either, but I’m not going to go on Twitter and say stupid sh-t. After this fight [with Rafael Carbalho], hopefully we can get it done and he can come and show his skills, but he will come up short. His style is perfect for me, he moves forward — he’ll get his ass kicked, probably. If I beat Carvalho, doors will open. I might go up to light heavyweight and maybe I can accomplish a title there. If I do well in the title fight and I win, I can achieve bigger things.” — Gegard Mousasi speaking on The MMA Hour.

This has been in the works for a long while now. Part of the prophecy has already been fulfilled, but Gegard Mousasi has to do his part and win the Bellator middleweight title. Then the two top UFC fighters will have a fight with each other that would have never happened in the UFC. If not, Rory MacDonald is find with fighting current champ Rafael Carvalho instead. ….And it looks like Carvalho is cool with it too.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/13/2018.