\u201cHe broke his nose,\u201d Coker told MMAjunkie \u201cI know that whatever he needed to do, he already did it. He said, \u2018I\u2019m ready to go, I\u2019m going to start training in a few weeks.\u2019 I said, \u2018Time out. Time out. Just relax.\u2019 He\u2019s an animal, man. He just wants to keep training and fighting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nRory MacDonald (20-5) suffered his first loss under the Bellator banner when he was finished via strikes in the second round by the current middleweight champion. It was the first time since July 2015 that the Canadian was finished in a fight. The 29-year-old has now lost three of his last five fights, including setbacks against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Robbie Lawler, where he also broke his nose.<\/p>\n
The Tristar standout is set to face former UFC title challenger Jon Fitch (31-7-1) in the Welterweight Grand Prix at an undetermined date. Coker says MacDonald has been keeping him updated on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cRory\u2019s been texting me every day, and he\u2019s been keeping me updated. He’s the kind of fighter that wants to fight tomorrow. If you ask me, he\u2019ll fight sometime in February. If you ask him he\u2019ll fight sometime in January. I think we have to just help him take a skip and just put the breaks on this, Rory. It\u2019s fine. We can wait another three or four weeks for your nose to heal and due time to heal and come back and be 100 percent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix already kicked off with former champion Douglas Lima defeating\u00a0Andrey Koreshkov in their trilogy matchup. For more information on the tournament, check out this video from Bellator MMA which outlines the brackets in the tournament<\/p>\n