Friday afternoon in the United Kingdom, UFC veteran Rory MacDonald made his highly anticipated Bellator MMA debut against heavy handed knockout artist Paul Daley.

MacDonald dominated the opening round, using his grappling to take Daley down and negate his knockout power. In the second round, MacDonald once again took Daley to the ground, this time however securing a rear-naked choke to finish the fight, making ‘The Red King’ the Bellator welterweight #1 contender. Following the fight, MacDonald spoke about the win, saying:

“It’s been a long time of lay-offs, man, it’s been a long two years to be honest,” he said in the post-fight interview. “It took a lot to stay focused, stay on track, to focus in on what I was lacking in every department of my life. And I made sure to check off all those wrongs I was doing, and it showed in the fight. Paul is one of the best guys that I’ve ever fought. I had to be on point and at my best, and tonight I was at my best.”

Now, MacDonald has taken to Instagram to reflect on his handiwork:

first off thank you god! and thank you all, for the love and support through a long lay off! tonight was the start of a new chapter! im excited to bring you more violence inside the @bellatormma cage asap! @monsterenergy @everlast photo credit: @lucasnoonan

A post shared by Rory Macdonald (@romac_gorilla) on May 19, 2017 at 9:10pm PDT

As previously stated, MacDonald is now the welterweight #1 contender, and will look to fight the winner of the Bellator 180 clash between Douglas Lima and Lorenz Larkin.

Only time will tell if MacDonald is able to capture Bellator MMA gold, and reach his goal of holding championship gold during his thrilling MMA career.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/20/2017.