The UFC Fight Night 54 event scheduled for October 4th in Halifax, Canada has received a welterweight main event featuring Tarec Saffiedine facing Rory MacDonald. The match pis two of the divisions hottest fighters, as both are riding winning streaks and looking to climb the rankings.
There is little doubt that MacDonald will open a favorite for this fight. Saffiedine is a former Strikeforce titleholder who owns a five fight winning streak. He fought for the first time in the UFC in January of 2014 after a year layoff, and won a UD against Hyun Gyu Lin. he owns a fine 15-3 record and is considered one of the better strikers in the division. But MacDonald has had the ‘protege’ label attached to his name for a long time, and the odds will show it.
MacDonald won in his last outing against Tyrone Woodley this past June. In an interesting side note, Woodley defeated Saffiedine when they met back in Strikeforce back in the beginning of 2011. His last loss came via split decision to Robbie Lawler, who is on his way to a title shot as the number one contender, and the only other loss on his resume is to long time top contender Carlos Condit. With wins over the likes of BJ Penn, Jake Ellenberger and Demian Maia, MacDonald has been fighting a far higher level of fighters than Saffiedine has.
MacDonald is still just 25 years old, and he is 17-2 overall. He was long considered a future titlist, with his lone impediment being his friendship with longtime champion Georges St Pierre. That impediment is gone, and MacDonald has been winning since having that obstacle removed.
Saffiedine should be motivated coming into the fight as well. Saffiedine has been lost in the shuffle on the UFC roster, and a step up match planned for UFC 172 against Jake Ellenberger did not materialize when he went down with an injury and had to pull out. He has been slow in getting his name out there since coming over to the UFC roster and he needs to win a signature fight to begin to move up the rankings.
Though Saffiedine can make it exciting, the end result is likely to be a MacDonald win by smothering.
