Jason MacDonald

Jason 'The Athlete' MacDonald is a Canadian mixed martial artist. He lives in Red Deer, Alta., with his wife Kelly and four children, boys Tristin and Keel, and girls Jett and True. He blogs regularly for Sportsnet.ca.

The upset of Miguel Torres (L) by Joseph Benavidez was pretty surprising to Jason MacDonald.

It seems like an eternity since I last posted a blog, but let me start by talking about Saturday's WEC event. I have pretty much come to expect some really exciting fights in the WEC, and while Saturday’s was probably the least exciting one I’ve seen in a while, it was still pretty good.

Dominick Cruz said pre-fight that nobody can hit him, and he sure seemed to prove that in his fight against Brian Bowles. Even though Bowles broke his hand on what he said was the first punch of the night, he wasn’t really connecting with anything the whole fight. Cruz was pretty much dodging everything.

He was moving a lot, changing stance, doing different stuff and I’m sure it was frustrating Bowles. That is just a frustrating style to face. It’s hard to put a game plan together and tough to figure out a guy like that.

The upset of Miguel Torres by Joseph Benavidez was pretty surprising to me. With Benavidez losing to Cruz in his last fight, I didn’t think he had what it took to beat a guy like Torres. But he came out and surprised everybody, including Miguel. It was great fight for his career, but not sure where it leaves Miguel. He’s now lost two straight.

I’ve trained with Torres; he’s a great fighter and has tremendous skill and even more heart. I’m not sure what he’ll do to get back to the top but if anyone can do it, he can.

I’m also not sure who the WEC will have Cruz defend his belt against first. He just beat Benavidez, so I can’t see them giving Benavidez the shot right away. It will be interesting to see if they give Scott Jorgensen the fight, after his 30 second win. Things were thrown upside down in the WEC.

Everybody knows I’m not a huge fan of Frank Mir and his commentating, but I thought Stephan Bonnar did a good job in the booth. Dana White said he’s going to keep Bonnar around as long as he wants to be there, win or lose. If they’re looking to move him over to commentary full time, that would be alright. It was his first time doing an event of that caliber, the entire event, and he did a great job. I heard rumours Mir was fired due to comments he made about Brock Lesnar, but my guess it was more to do with him getting ready for his upcoming fight.

I’m not sure I’d be willing to pay top dollar for the upcoming pay-per-view. I really enjoy the WEC fights, I just don’t know if I’ll want to pay $40 or whatever to see them. It will be interesting to see how they do in their first PPV.

Then a couple of weeks ago we had the UFC (like I said, it’s been a while since my last blog), and there were a couple of big upsets there. In my picks before I went on vacation, I think I bombed on all of them (at least in the main card).

Velasquez knocking out Nogueira really shocked me, but I’m finally a believer. Even though he’s undersized, he’ll be a force in the heavyweight division. He just continues to get better in every fight. He’s not just a grappler like we saw against Cheick Kongo, he’s been working on his striking and it has paid off.

Wanderlei Silva beat Michael Bisping, and even though there were some complaints, I think he legitimately won the fight. Bisping spent a lot of the fight running, and Silva was always the aggressor. He also had that tight guillotine, and would have had the knockout if he had more time at the end of the third.

Wanderlei showed us he’s not going anywhere. He’s had some tough fights, still has a lot to offer. And Bisping continues to show us every time he loses he whines about it.

George Sotoripoulos shocked me, beating Joe Stevenson. He keeps getting better and better.

Ryan Bader beating Keith Jardine is the only one I think I called right. He was one-dimensional when he first came into the UFC, and he’s becoming a good all-around fighter. I’d like to see him take a step up in his next fight and see where he’s at. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Bader vs. Tito Ortiz fight. The UFC’s 205 division is probably the toughest and deepest one they’ve got.

It looks like we’re going to see Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski again. The fight was close up until the accidental headbutt.

Even if they haven’t cleared all the hurdles in Vancouver yet, the UFC has the ability to do what’s necessary to get a show in there. I think the show will go on.

As you readers might know by now, I took a short-notice fight against Vernon White for the main event of W-1: Bad Blood on March 20 in Montreal. I had already been negotiating with W-1 to get a fight for Ryan Machan (one of my fighters). Then Denis Kang hurt his neck in training, and they asked if I would come in and save the main event.

I was just on vacation but I was training hard before, and still did some jogging while I was in Mexico. The day I got back I was back in the gym helping other guys. So when I accepted the fight last week, I had about 2 1/2 weeks, which I think is enough to be prepared for it. I was hoping to squeeze in a couple fights this spring and this one just sprung up, so it’s a great opportunity.

The only bad thing is we have my Pure Fighting Championship card this week, so I’m a little busy trying to do two things. I had most things already planned and put together, so it’s just a matter of doing the final preparations.

I think we have a great main event with Andrew Buckland taking on Jordan Mein. As a fight fan, and as a promoter, I’m pretty excited to see this fight. Ryan and Evan Sanguin both dislocated their elbows in the past two events. So my guys think it’s a jinx and they don’t want anything to do with the main event.

The majority of my guys will be fighting. Derek Clark is stepping up to take on Tim Tamaki, Jesse Fox is facing Rob Roy and Georges Belanger is fighting Victor Daychief.

Evan’s still nursing his injured elbow and Ryan is signed on to fight for the Ringside MMA lightweight title against Guillaume de Lorenzi in three weeks in Montreal.

Ticket sales have been going well and all VIP dinner tables have been sold. As any event, at this point, you just hope now that the fighters perform.