Firas Zahabi rules out Rory MacDonald facing B.J. Penn at UFC 153
Firas Zahabi, the head coach at the Tri-star Gym in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has ruled out the possibility of top welterweight contender, Rory MacDonald taking on B.J. Penn at the UFC 153 event set for October 13th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Speaking via Fighters Only Magazine, Zahabi said:
“The thing is, Rory’s cut is to the bone and there’s three layers of stitches. There’s stitches on the inside layer and the outside and the eyebrow. So the doctor says no contact at all for one month and that doesn’t mean he can start sparring after a month – he can’t get punched there for a while, longer than a month.”
“He can start to do technique and wrestling after a month but we are not planning on putting a headgear on him until the first of October. Anything before that would be too early and the chances of Rory getting a new cut would be too high, it’s too dangerous. A cut is a cut but 38 stitches is a massive cut, it’s not a regular cut where you get 10 or 12 stitches and it heals after a few weeks. This is a massive cut, it went internal, all the way to the bone. So you could see the bone of his skull after he got cut.
“That’s why there’s so many stitches – 38 over three layers, that’s why he can’t even have any contact at all for one month. Can’t even drill. And after a month he can start technical movements – armlocks and toeholds on the ground, wrestling manoeuvres. But he can’t get punched. It will be another month a half before we put a headgear on him. And by put a headgear on him I mean making him box. Because if we get another punch on it, it’s going to reopen. So it will be a while before we can get the headgear on him.”
MacDonald has gone from strength to strength since making his debut inside the octagon and is on a three-fight winning streak after defeating Nate Diaz, Mike Pyle and Che Mills in impressive fashion. His sole loss came against Carlos Condit at UFC 115, losing via TKO with just seconds left after dominating the first two rounds.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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