December 23, 2024

Gegard Mousasi on potential Rory MacDonald super-fight: I’m no Michael Bisping

Bloodyelbow.com

Last week at Bellator 200Gegard Mousasi added another world title to his collection when he bagged the Bellator middleweight championship by defeating Rafael Carvalho via first-round TKO. During his post-fight interview, the 32-year-old MMA veteran immediately called out welterweight fight champion Rory MacDonald for a possible super-fight.

MacDonald accepted Mousasi’s challenge, urging company CEO Scott Coker to make this fight happen, next. Mousasi, however, issued a warning to “The Red King” about this potential fight.

“Listen, I’m no Michael Bisping,” Mousasi said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting). “I know what Georges St-Pierre did, but believe me, I’m physically a lot stronger than Michael Bisping. Technically, I’m better. So it’s almost the same fight, GSP vs. Michael Bisping, but now it’s Rory against me.”

“I think he doesn’t know. He’s a big welterweight, but still, he doesn’t have anything over me that I’m impressed by — let’s say wrestling or standup, or he doesn’t have the reach, speed, the striking. So I don’t know. I’ve trained with Douglas Lima, he’s a tough kid, but I could feel the weight difference.

“I don’t know if [MacDonald] thinks it’s easy, but he will feel it in the fight,” Mousasi continued. “I feel like I’m one of the strong middleweights, physically. If they’re not on steroids, I’m physically one of the strongest.”

For Mousasi, picking MacDonald as his first title challenger in a champion vs. champion matchup was about adding to his stock value more than anything else.

“I think Rory is a big name. It’s a fight that everyone wants to see. I want to make the fight, I think Rory wants to make the fight,” Mousasi said. “Rory started with wanting to come up in weight and we like the fight, so he said it and we replied a hundred times, and now, I don’t know, it’s not up to me. Like Rory said, it’s up to Bellator.”

MacDonald won the Bellator welterweight title by defeating Douglas Lima via unanimous decision at Bellator 192 in January.

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