{"id":71480,"date":"2025-08-16T00:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71480\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T00:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:32:08","slug":"rory-macdonald-names-the-one-ufc-fight-that-could-bring-him-out-of-mma-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71480\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory MacDonald names the one UFC fight that could bring him out of MMA retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rory MacDonald wouldn\u2019t come back for just any UFC fight.<\/p>\n<p>This week marks three years since the former Bellator Welterweight Champion announced his retirement from the sport of MMA.<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald was one half of arguably the <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/05\/08\/robbie-lawler-reveals-how-most-vicious-fight-in-ufc-history-forever-changed-rory-macdonald\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most vicious fight in UFC history with Robbie Lawler<\/a> back at <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/ufc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> 189 in 2015. MacDonald had many memorable moments in his 34-fight career, defeating the likes of Tyron Woodley, BJ Penn, Nate Diaz, and Demian Maia.<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald retired from fighting earlier than most, at the age of 33, after back-to-back losses in the 2022 PFL tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Years removed from the decision, <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/05\/09\/rory-macdonald-addresses-reality-of-ufc-return-10-years-after-robbie-lawler-fight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MacDonald said he probably won\u2019t return to the UFC<\/a> but he has been training again, <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/11\/stephen-thompson-brought-ufc-legend-out-of-retirement-for-training-camp-against-17-1-prospect\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently working with former foe Stephen Thompson for his last fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald was asked, out of anybody, who he\u2019d most likely fight in a potential comeback.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" loading=\"lazy\"  data-id=\"198936\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-480448782-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald face off during their UFC 189 title fight\" class=\"wp-image-198936\" \/>Photo by Christian Petersen\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesRory MacDonald says he\u2019d be \u2018super interested\u2019 in Robbie Lawler trilogy<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald went to war with <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/robbie-lawler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robbie Lawler<\/a> not once, but twice in his career.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian unfortunately went 0-2 against Lawler, with his rival defeating him by split decision in 2013 and then again by fifth-round TKO in the 2015 \u2018fight of the year\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>If \u2018The Red King\u2019 were to fight again, MacDonald says it\u2019d likely have to be against Lawler again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I would probably,\u201d MacDonald said of a potential Lawler trilogy bout on the Overdogs podcast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot to disrespect Robbie, but if they did offer it, I would be super interested,\u201d MacDonald continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because of like the nostalgia and he beat me twice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love Robbie. I respect him. He\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, if anything, I would talk to him personally about it before,\u201d MacDonald said, if he were to rematch Lawler.<\/p>\n<p>Robbie Lawler was in talks to fight Mike Perry before Jeremy Stephens<\/p>\n<p>UFC Hall of Famer Lawler retired from MMA a year after MacDonald did, in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler made headlines earlier this year when he was in talks for a comeback fight against BKFC\u2019s \u2018King of Violence\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/mike-perry\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Perry<\/a>. Lawler and Perry were supposed to fight each other in 2020 but never did because \u2018Ruthless\u2019 suffered an injury.<\/p>\n<p>BKFC boss <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/08\/13\/bkfc-president-says-two-former-ufc-stars-were-in-contention-to-face-mike-perry-instead-of-conor-mcgregors-former-rival\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Feldman said he was unable to get a deal done with Lawler<\/a>, who is still under UFC contract at 43 years old.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/08\/13\/mike-perrys-bare-knuckle-fc-return-booked-for-october-4th-against-former-ufc-fan-favorite\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perry is slated to face long-tenured UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens<\/a> at BKFC 82 on Oct. 4 in Newark, New Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory MacDonald wouldn\u2019t come back for just any UFC fight. This week marks three years since the former&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,56037,29246,85,787],"class_list":["post-71480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-robbie-lawler","tag-rory-macdonald","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}