{"id":201975,"date":"2016-08-24T09:47:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=201975"},"modified":"2016-08-24T09:51:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:51:18","slug":"rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday morning, news surfaced that the <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-removed-ufc-rankings\/\">UFC had removed Rory MacDonald from their official welterweight rankings. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>This led to much speculation regarding MacDonald signing with Bellator MMA, given that <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/bellator-discussions-going-well-with-rory-macdonald\/\">Bellator MMA President Scott Coker stated recently that negotiations with MacDonald were going well.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, FrontRowBrian has confirmed in addition to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flocombat.com\/article\/45513-breaking-rory-macdonald-signs-with-bellator\" target=\"_blank\">FloCombat<\/a>, revealing that the UFC has declined to match Bellator&#8217;s offer to Rory MacDonald, thus making him a Bellator MMA fighter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I confirmed UFC declined to match Bellator\u2019s offer to Rory Mac. Rory Mac is a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BellatorMMA\">@bellatormma<\/a> fighter. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FloCombat\">@FloCombat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FrontRowBrian (@FrontRowBrian) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FrontRowBrian\/status\/768487721203486720\">August 24, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So far no word yet on when MacDonald will make his Bellator MMA debut.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned for updates as they become available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday morning, news surfaced that the UFC had removed Rory MacDonald from their official welterweight rankings. This led to much speculation regarding MacDonald signing with Bellator MMA, given that Bellator MMA President Scott Coker stated recently that negotiations with MacDonald were going well. Now, FrontRowBrian has confirmed in addition to FloCombat, revealing that the UFC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":129424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10146],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wednesday morning, news surfaced that the UFC had removed Rory MacDonald from their official welterweight rankings. This led to much speculation regarding MacDonald signing with Bellator MMA, given that Bellator MMA President Scott Coker stated recently that negotiations with MacDonald were going well. Now, FrontRowBrian has confirmed in addition to FloCombat, revealing that the UFC [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T16:47:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T16:51:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Rory-MacDonald.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bjpenndotcom\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a\"},\"headline\":\"Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-24T16:47:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-24T16:51:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\"},\"wordCount\":123,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Rory MacDonald\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\",\"name\":\"Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-24T16:47:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-24T16:51:18+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-officially-becomes-bellator-mma-fighter\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Rory MacDonald\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Rory MacDonald officially becomes Bellator MMA fighter\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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