Rory MacDonald suffered a broken nose during his loss to Stephen Thompson at UFC Fight Night 89 this past weekend, but it turns out that this is nothing new for the welterweight star.
Of course, everyone remembers that MacDonald broke his nose last year during his ‘Fight Of The Year’ loss to welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, but it seems that he’s been continuing to have problems with it since then.
“I broke it actually a couple times before this fight. I have no idea what to do,” MacDonald revealed at the post-fight press conference. “I gave it time, it kept breaking. I don’t know if surgery is gonna be the best route. I really just have to take time. I’d probably at least look into surgery, see if that can make it stronger, because just time off didn’t do sh*t.”
On Saturday night, MacDonald said the “familiar feeling” of blood pouring out of his nose “like a waterfall” began in the fifth round, though if there’s one positive to be drawn from it, that would be the way that he dealt with it this time around.
“I got to push through some things I felt in the Robbie fight, I felt I handled it better as a competitor. I felt when my nose busted and I was taking those hard shots, that voice in my head telling me, ‘Ok, go down,’ like I did in the Robbie fight, but this time I was like, ‘No, no, no. Relax, breathe. Take a movement, take a breath, you’re still in this.’ So, I think that was a good thing in this fight. I’ll take that away from this. I had a little more composure.”
Nonetheless, MacDonald admits that he’s now going to need time to sort out his nose issue, with surgery looking like the best option, so it’ll be a while before he makes his return, and now that his UFC contract is up it remains to be seen whether he’ll be back in the Octagon next time out.
