{"id":15011,"date":"2014-06-14T13:16:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T05:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=15011"},"modified":"2014-06-14T23:19:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T15:19:51","slug":"canadas-rory-macdonald-says-he-doesnt-feel-any-pressure-in-st-pierres-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/14\/canadas-rory-macdonald-says-he-doesnt-feel-any-pressure-in-st-pierres-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Rory MacDonald says he doesn’t feel any pressure in St Pierre’s absence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canada's<\/a>
Canada’s Rory MacDonald. Photo courtesy of MacDonald’s Facebook fan page<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER — Rory MacDonald says he doesn’t feel any added pressure to carry Canada’s mixed martial arts torch in Georges St-Pierre’s absence.<\/p>\n

In fact, his mentor’s hiatus from the UFC makes McDonald’s quest to reach the top of the welterweight division a little easier.<\/p>\n

“It opens things up for me to get to where I want to be,” MacDonald said this week. “I’ve learned a lot from Georges. No extra pressure, I’ve just got to be myself.”<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if St-Pierre will return to the sport he dominated, but the 24-year-old MacDonald — who goes by the nickname “Ares” — is intent on continuing his climb this Saturday at UFC 174 when he takes on Tyron (The Chosen One) Woodley in the co-main event at Rogers Arena.<\/p>\n

Both men have their sights set on Johny Hendricks’ welterweight title, with MacDonald ranked as the No. 2 challenger and Woodley at No. 3.<\/p>\n

Shy in front of the media glare, MacDonald said he just has to continue working on what has brought him to this point.<\/p>\n

“I think people like me for who I am,” said MacDonald, who was born in Quesnel, B.C., but now trains in Montreal. “I’ve gotten to the position I’m in because of being who I am — a couple stumbles along the way but I feel like I’m hitting my stride right now.”<\/p>\n

One of those stumbles actually came in Vancouver when MacDonald (16-2) lost at UFC 115 in June 2010 to Carlos Condit. His only other defeat came to Robbie Lawler in a split decision at UFC 167 in November, but MacDonald rebounded to beat Demian Maia in a split decision at UFC 170 in February.<\/p>\n

“You pick and choose your spots. You play between defence and offence against other good fighters,” said MacDonald. “I just had a great training camp. No injuries and things went great. I felt great in my sparrings and my techniques are sharp.”<\/p>\n

Woodley (13-2), a two-time All-American wrestler at the University of Missouri, has just three UFC bouts under his belt, including a technical knockout victory over Condit at UFC 171 in March.<\/p>\n

MacDonald said if he fights to his strengths against Woodley, he should come out on top.<\/p>\n

“I know the techniques. They come out as instinct right now,” said MacDonald. “I’ve trained them so much. So I’ve just got to go in there and do my thing.<\/p>\n

“I’m ready for everything. Last time here was unbelievable, the response I got. If it’s the same, more, or less I’ll be ready.”<\/p>\n

In a era where athletes in all sports are constantly looking for an edge, MacDonald said he doesn’t study video of his opponents before a fight, preferring to use his instincts.<\/p>\n

“I’ve fought a lot of people in the past — never seen them, never heard of them and had to deal with their problems,” he said. “I find it easier to do it like that, to react in the cage.”<\/p>\n

MacDonald is hoping for the same against Woodley on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

“He’s a great fighter. To beat him you have to be tricky and use good techniques,” he said. “I feel very confident in my abilities and the solutions I have.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER — Rory MacDonald says he doesn’t feel any added pressure to carry Canada’s mixed martial arts torch in Georges …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":15182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,44],"tags":[5306,5305,5307,5308],"class_list":["post-15011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-sports","tag-george-st-pierre","tag-rory-macdonald","tag-ufc","tag-ultimate-fighting-champion","mauthors-joshua-clipperton","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}