After his latest loss for the PFL, Canadian star Rory MacDonald has retired from the sport.
MacDonald suffered his fourth loss in five fights on Saturday afternoon at the PFL event in Wales where he was stopped by replacement Dilano Taylor in the first round.
MacDonald was slated to fight Magomed Umalatov in the semi-finals of the PFL’s welterweight tournament but a visa issue prevented Umalatov from fighting in the country and led to Taylor stepping into the spot.
On Sunday, MacDonald confirmed he was retiring:
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MacDonald, 33, began fighting professionally in 2005 at the age of sixteen out of British Columbia and earned victories against future UFC fighters Jordan Mein and Kajan Johnson early in his development.
In 2010, he joined the UFC and submitted Mike Guymon but it was his first career loss that opened a lot of eyes to his upward limit. Against Carlos Condit at UFC 115 in Vancouver, MacDonald was winning the fight before he was stopped with seven seconds to go. While it was a tough loss for the Canadian, his success against a proven commodity in Condit was an impressive feat.
MacDonald went on a big run after the loss to Condit with wins against Nate Diaz, Mike Pyle, Che Mills, BJ Penn, and Jake Ellenberger before dropping a split decision to his most famous opponent, Robbie Lawler at UFC 167.
MacDonald was seen as the heir to the throne of Canadian MMA to follow in the steps of Tristar training partner Georges St-Pierre, who headlined against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 and won a controversial decision before stepping away from the sport for four years.
The loss to Lawler sent MacDonald back in line at welterweight and earned his way back to the front with his strongest stretch of wins against Demian Maia, Tyron Woodley, and Tarec Saffiedine and set up a rematch with Lawler for UFC 189 in July 2015.
The rematch was a legendary war and among the best fights in UFC history, although dramatic damage was incurred by both men and analysts believing MacDonald was never fully the same after this fight where he was stopped in the fifth round.
After a follow-up loss to Stephen Thompson, he was a free agent and signed with Bellator, and won his first world championship beating Douglas Lima in January 2018.
While a champion at 170 pounds, he tried to move up to middleweight and was beaten by middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi. MacDonald lost the welterweight title back to Lima in the Welterweight World Grand Prix in October 2019, which ended up being his last fight with the promotion.
MacDonald joined the PFL and went 1-2 in the 2021 season including a split decision loss to Gleison Tibau that was scrutinized and a decision loss to Ray Cooper III in the semi-finals.
He came back this season and submitted Brett Cooper and lost in back-to-back months to Sadibou Sy in July and Dilano Taylor this weekend.
MacDonald retires with a record of 23-10-1
