{"id":311688,"date":"2019-04-29T17:32:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=311688"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:33:52","slug":"firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Firas Zahabi shuts down talk of Rory MacDonald retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After Rory MacDonald fought to <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/bellator-220-results-rory-macdonald-vs-jon-fitch-highlights\/\">a majority draw against Jon Fitch<\/a> in the first round of the welterweight grand prix, his post-fight comments caused quite a stir. <br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what to say,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/rory-macdonald-questioning-fighting-future-after-jon-fitch-draw\/\">MacDonald said post-fight<\/a>. &#8220;I landed some good stuff in there, I don&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s hard to sometimes pull the trigger now. I don&#8217;t have that killer inside. It&#8217;s really hard to explain. But I hesitate a little bit now. It wasn&#8217;t my best performance.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Immediately following Rory\u2019s post-fight comments, many fans took to social media wondering if this was it for the current Bellator welterweight champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, MacDonald&#8217;s head coach in Firas Zahabi doesn&#8217;t believe the &#8216;Red King&#8217; will retire. Rather, Zahabi believes his pupil still has a lot of fight left in him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A lot of fighters go through these kinds of things. He&#8217;s not the first guy to see both sides of fighting &#8212; the good part, the darker part &#8212; and then kind of come to these realizations,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mma\/story\/_\/id\/26635025\/rory-macdonald-coach-speaks-ariel-helwani\">Zahabi said on Ariel Helwani&#8217;s MMA show<\/a>, of MacDonald, who is scheduled to face Neiman Gracie next in the semifinals of Bellator&#8217;s Welterweight Grand Prix. &#8220;Right after a fight, you&#8217;re so full of emotions. The pendulum might swing the other way. He might want to fight and continue and that&#8217;s what I think will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I really feel like he has a lot of fight left in him &#8230; he&#8217;s a natural-born fighter. I think he&#8217;s going to continue on his journey. &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, no one truly knows what is going through MacDonald&#8217;s head right now except for Rory. But, his coach remains confident that his slated bout with Neiman Gracie will still happen this June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you agree with Firas Zahabi&#8217;s comments? Sound off in the comment section, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article first appeared on&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><em>BJPenn.com<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;on 4\/29\/2019<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Rory MacDonald fought to a majority draw against Jon Fitch in the first round of the welterweight grand prix, his post-fight comments caused quite a stir. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what to say,&#8221; MacDonald said post-fight. &#8220;I landed some good stuff in there, I don&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s hard to sometimes pull the trigger now. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":280970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10167,10146],"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>Firas Zahabi shuts down talk of Rory MacDonald retiring | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rory MacDonald&#039;s head coach in Firas Zahabi doesn&#039;t believe &#039;Red King&#039; will retire. Rather, Zahabi believes his pupil still has a lot of fight left.\" \/>\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\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Firas Zahabi shuts down talk of Rory MacDonald retiring | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rory MacDonald&#039;s head coach in Firas Zahabi doesn&#039;t believe &#039;Red King&#039; will retire. Rather, Zahabi believes his pupil still has a lot of fight left.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\" \/>\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=\"2019-04-30T00:32:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-30T00:33:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rory-MacDonald.jpg\" \/>\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\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\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=\"Cole Shelton\" \/>\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\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cole Shelton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/700e11a4d77666aed250058808e16134\"},\"headline\":\"Firas Zahabi shuts down talk of Rory MacDonald retiring\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T00:32:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-30T00:33:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Bellator\",\"Firas Zahabi\",\"Rory MacDonald\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/firas-zahabi-shuts-down-talk-of-rory-macdonald-retiring\/\",\"name\":\"Firas Zahabi shuts down talk of Rory MacDonald retiring | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T00:32:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-30T00:33:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"Rory MacDonald's head coach in Firas Zahabi doesn't believe 'Red King' will retire. 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