{"id":277435,"date":"2018-05-30T06:04:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T13:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=277435"},"modified":"2018-05-30T06:04:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T13:04:29","slug":"rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory MacDonald and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after winning the Bellator middleweight title with a first-round mauling of Rafael Carvalho, Gegard Mousasi called for a fight with Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald. Not long thereafter, MacDonald <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-responds-to-gegard-mousasis-callout-2\/\">answered this call<\/a>, assuring it&#8217;s a fight he wants as well.<\/p>\n<p>Days later, both Bellator champions appeared on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KLYxToDjsr0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The MMA Hour<\/a>, where they each explained the appeal of the matchup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, me and Gegard want it and I think the fans want it,&#8221; MacDonald said *transcribed by Alexander K. Lee for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2018\/5\/29\/17406096\/rory-macdonald-fight-with-gegard-mousasi-is-the-biggest-bellator-could-make-right-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMA Fighting<\/a>). &#8220;I think it would be the biggest fight that Bellator, that they could put on right now. In my opinion, if they pass this opportunity by, it would be a mistake because how often can you get this kind of timing and one fight could change the direction of any one of our careers, so I think the opportunity is now and we should take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"tcTsQe\">\u201c[I want the fight] for multiple reasons,\u201d MacDonald added. \u201cNumber one, it was my goal to be a champion of middleweight and welterweight. And then Gegard\u2019s been hunting the fight between us, he wants to fight me and I obviously want what he has, so I think that\u2019s great timing. He\u2019s one of the best guys in the world at 185, so who better to fight for a world title at middleweight than him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Mousasi, meanwhile, the appeal is that MacDonald is one of the biggest names available \u2014 certainly a bigger name than the other middleweights on the Bellator roster.<\/p>\n<p id=\"e3UIAU\">\u201cThere\u2019s some Russian guy who fought on the same card, he\u2019s good,&#8221; Mousasi said of the other options available (transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2018\/5\/29\/17406198\/gegard-mousasi-warns-rory-macdonald-dangers-of-middleweight-superfight-listen-im-no-michael-bisping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMA Fighting<\/a>). &#8220;There\u2019s an American guy, bald guy, he\u2019s good. There\u2019s one jiu-jitsu guy, he\u2019s good. I don\u2019t know any of those names, to be honest. They\u2019re all contenders but you don\u2019t know them, I don\u2019t know them. So for me, if I go and fight them, if I lose to one of them, oh my God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"eCgwhQ\">\u201cThey just need me to lose to somebody who doesn\u2019t have a name, then they\u2019re going to kill me, they\u2019re going to bury me,&#8221; Mousasi said. &#8220;But Rory is a big name. He\u2019s a big name. If I win, people will know I have a win over a good fighter, a very well-known fighter. So of course it\u2019s, for me, a win-win situation, [rather] than fighting a guy that no one knows.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do you think Bellator will make this fight between Rory MacDonald and Gegard Mousasi?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 5\/30\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after winning the Bellator middleweight title with a first-round mauling of Rafael Carvalho, Gegard Mousasi called for a fight with Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald. Not long thereafter, MacDonald answered this call, assuring it&#8217;s a fight he wants as well. Days later, both Bellator champions appeared onThe MMA Hour, where they each explained the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":277436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10349,10146],"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 and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other | 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-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rory MacDonald and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shortly after winning the Bellator middleweight title with a first-round mauling of Rafael Carvalho, Gegard Mousasi called for a fight with Bellator welterweight champ Rory MacDonald. Not long thereafter, MacDonald answered this call, assuring it&#8217;s a fight he wants as well. Days later, both Bellator champions appeared onThe MMA Hour, where they each explained the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-05-30T13:04:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rory-MacDonald-Gegard-Mousasi.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\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=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\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-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Rory MacDonald and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-30T13:04:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-30T13:04:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\"},\"wordCount\":454,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Gegard Mousasi\",\"Rory MacDonald\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\",\"name\":\"Rory MacDonald and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-30T13:04:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-30T13:04:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rory-macdonald\/rory-macdonald-and-gegard-mousasi-explain-why-they-want-to-fight-each-other\/#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 and Gegard Mousasi explain why they want to fight each other\"}]},{\"@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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