A Closer Look At UFC 133: Mike Pyle vs. Rory MacDonald

“A Closer Look At UFC 133” enters its second day, covering the complete UFC 133 card in full detail. The first two parts of the series, looking at the preliminary match-ups on both Spike TV and Facebook, have already been posted. Part 1 is available here, Part 2 can be seen here. Today’s first entry is also the first entry covering the Pay-Per-View portion of the card. It’s Mike Pyle vs. Rory MacDonald, and this is “A Closer Look At UFC 133”.

Rory MacDonald has been fighting as a professional Mixed Martial Arts for about five years, and has already competed in the UFC three times. MacDonald entered the world’s largest and most prestigious MMA promotion after winning nine straight fights in his native Canada. Even more impressive, all nine victories were stoppages, with five of them taking place in the first round.

MacDonald capitalized on that momentum by winning his UFC debut via first-round submission. MacDonald was then given the toughest test of his career and matched up against Carlos Condit. Condit would end up taking the TKO win with only seven seconds left in a very close fight, with many fans and insiders believing that MacDonald would have won if the fight wasn’t stopped. MacDonald recently rebounded from that loss with a pretty awesome showing against Nate Diaz, highlighted by MacDonald rag dolling and slamming/throwing Diaz several times.

MacDonald’s opponent, Mike Pyle, has been fighting since 1999 and will have his thirtieth professional fight against MacDonald. Pyle’s record stands at 21-7-1, and he’s competed in many of the best promotions around the word. Here’s just a short list of notable promotions Pyle has fought in: Shooto, WEC, IFL, Elite XC, Strikeforce, Sengoku, Affliction, and the UFC.

Currently, Pyle’s record sits at a comfortable 4-2 inside the UFC. Pyle is also riding high on a three-fight win-streak, and most-recently defeated Ricardo Almeida. It was arguably the biggest win of Pyle’s UFC career, although his win over John Hathaway came close. Much like MacDonald, Hathaway was thought of as one of the next big can’t-miss prospects, only for Pyle to put him in his place and control him thoroughly before taking home the Unanimous Decision victory.

It’s really tough to say who’s going to win this fight. In terms of “grizzled veteran vs. hot prospect” fights, it doesn’t get much more grizzled than Mike Pyle and the prospects don’t come much hotter than Rory MacDonald.

If MacDonald wants to win this fight, he can’t look past or underestimate Pyle in the way that Hathaway honestly did. When you put a veteran fighter into an underdog role, it motivates that veteran to try harder than ever and fight to his full potential. Mike Pyle may never be a UFC champion, but he’s got an amazing amount of experience and that can and has outmatched the pure, raw talent of fighters like MacDonald.

In the end, it’s going to come down to who stumbles under the pressure. Pyle is facing a sea of newcomers that are all hungry to rocket their way to the top and thus rocket their way past veterans like himself. MacDonald is facing a mountain of hype and the expectations that come with it. It should be a spectacular encounter, and a great way to start off the Pay-Per-View.