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.

There’s been quite the splash in the heavyweight division since my last blog a couple weeks ago. First we learned that Fedor’s human like everyone else. I think he simply made a tactical error. It was poor judgment of him fighting a world-class jiu-jitsu guy who is not the greatest standing.

It was a typical Fedor Emelianenko fight up until the point he got caught. He was attacking, knocked Fabricio Werdum down, then jumped into his guard and was recklessly punching. He somehow escapes an armbar, but instead of getting back to his feet, he jumps back down and gets caught in a triangle.

Fedor is still in my opinion one of the best heavyweights out there and I would still very much like to see him fight Alistair Overeem.

There was a lot of talk of him throwing the fight, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would do that. It’s like they say: if you’re not losing, it’s because you’re not fighting the toughest guys. Let’s see if he’ll bounce back.

Then there was last week’s UFC event. Everyone was talking about it being the best UFC in recent memory. I don’t know. I don’t think it was even the best in the last year. I was a little bit disappointed with Sotiropoulos-Pellegrino. I thought it had fight of the night potential, but it ended up being a little lacklustre.

Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama was entertaining to say the least. Leben must have a head full of cement. But something like that changes a guy’s life. Two weeks, two big wins, two bonuses -- good for Chris.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski was entertaining too. I was obviously rooting for my buddy Krzysztof but Stephan’s had a hard run of things, coming up short a lot lately so it was nice to see him bounce back and get a win. And in Bonnar fashion -- a throw down, drag ‘em out, punching like crazy. It was odd that Soszynski would engage him in that kind of fight.

Finally, I think Brock Lesnar has definitely grown and matured as a fighter. He’s a much humbler, politically correct guy, and I felt he had a greatly changed physique.

He looked smaller, not as much like bull, but looking more like an athlete. I’m not saying he wasn’t before, he just looked like he had a more fighting-like physique.

His fight against Shane Carwin went the way I thought: they came out like two bulls. The first round could have gone either way. It could have easily been Brock giving that beatdown to Shane.

It was a good call by the referee to let the fight go. As a fighter, Brock was doing just enough not to let the fight be stopped. Every time a punch was thrown, he would scramble a little bit and he weathered the storm.

Carwin looked like a guy who has never fought past the first round before. You have no idea how to pace yourself, or how you’re going to feel in the second round. You can train all the rounds you want in the gym, but in a fight, when you’ve got adrenaline going, the nerves, and you’re going at 100 per cent, it’s totally different. And he admits to going out too hard.

I don’t think it was an error on his part, he just wasn’t prepared for that. He had never done it and his body didn’t know what to expect.

Brock came out the fresher guy in the second round and did to Shane what he did to him the first round. I was watching with some friends, and one of them had bet a $1,000 on Carwin. So early on he was jumping up and down saying, "I’m taking you all out for drinks." Two minutes later he was pouting. I think his payout odds would have been 5-1.

On the personal front, my ankle’s getting much better. I was able to ride the stationary bike this week. Now I’m just counting the days until July 27, when I get the screw out and get the full mobility back in my angle.

Now I’m working on putting together our fifth Pure Fighting Championship event. It will be July 24 at a new location, the Red Deer Arena. It’s a nice venue in downtown Red Deer. The ice comes out for only three weeks a year and so we’re slipping in there. Red Deer is a huge hockey city and the arenas are booked up a ton.

One of my guys, Ryan Machan, fought last night at Aggression MMA (he won by first-round submission). But he didn’t make weight Thursday night. He was 159, four pounds over. We sat in the sauna for hours; I lost 10 pounds, he lost 1.

As proud as I’ve been about always making weight and my fighters making weight, this is the second time in a row missing weight. So needless to say, this will be his last fight at 155 pounds.

Continuing on the Edmonton MMA theme, the big news this week is Ryan Ford is back with the MFC. Ryan needed to take care of himself and his family and I believe the MFC can give him the quality opponents and exposure he needs. I don’t think the TFC was giving him tough enough guys to move him forward in his career.

Ryan is a huge ticket seller in Edmonton and Mark Pavelich is not stupid. As long as they were able to get their issues sorted out, it’s a good move for both sides. I’m not sure he’s such a huge draw in Manitoba, where their next card will be, but we’ll see.

It will be interesting to see if they can get Ryan to the next level. Mark’s problem is he’s gone on the record saying he doesn’t like guys who are not team players or who are using the MFC as a stepping stone to the UFC. But I’m sure that’s what Ryan wants to do, so Mark must be alright with that.

The other thing is Edmonton is a very competitive market. I think there are too many organizations, too many trying to put on shows in the city. And it’s resulting in mediocre turnouts, because the market is getting so watered down. So it doesn’t surprise me if TFC is struggling. I don’t know if they’ll return. There’s only so many big draws in Edmonton. Ford was one of them, and that leaves only guys like Tim Hague and Victor Valimaki.

Lastly, the news about Vancouver’s athletic commissioner being fired is not good for MMA in Vancouver. The one guy who has been helping the UFC and helping MMA in the city is now gone.

Having said that, the mayor was cageside at UFC 115, so hopefully he can help to keep the sport going in Vancouver.