MacDonald vs. Daley: In the Court of the Crimson King

Rory MacDonald returned with a vengeance at Bellator 179 on Friday night. In front of a British crowd, MacDonald smothered English banger, Paul Daley before taking his back and securing a choke in the first half of the second round. Any fears of MacDonald being gun-shy were quickly dispelled as he charged out to counter a Daley jab with a corking right hand before snatching up a single leg takedown and finishing it with ease.

Through the first round, MacDonald seemed more than comfortable inside Daley's guard. MacDonald would tripod on his feet and drive his head underneath Daley's to create discomfort, and begin creeping his hands up to look for that vintage Georges St-Pierre can opener position with the double collar tie in the guard. While handfighting with Daley for this position, MacDonald showed nice upward elbows from inside the guard, these are seldom seen in MMA and clearly a surprise to Daley.

This bout made an interesting comparison with Frankie Edgar's destruction of Yair Rodriguez the previous weekend. Rodriguez has an aggressive and dangerous guard, so Edgar pushed him to the fence and smushed his head into it—allowing Edgar to stand and stack Rodriguez's hips, stifling his guard attacks.

When MacDonald tripoded on Daley and Daley began to shoulder walk back towards the fence, MacDonald immediately pivoted all the way around and turned Daley to face the centre of the cage. This is likely because MacDonald was not threatened by Daley's guard, but Daley is decent at using the fence to get up off the mat.

The entire first round consisted of Daley being forced to work from the bottom. Every time Daley's guard opened, MacDonald would sneak a knee through and pass. The strikes weren't frequent but the pressure was a constant. Daley was forced to bump, shrimp, and recover while MacDonald looked completely at ease. Even when Daley got underhooks from half guard and whipped up onto his side, all he did was achieve closed guard again. These exertions quickly took their toll on the knockout artist.

As the second round started, MacDonald faded away from a desperate flying knee and countered with another right hand. MacDonald threw in a high kick and as soon as Daley chucked leather back, MacDonald was in on the hips again. A takedown followed and an effortless pass straight to side control this time.

MacDonald moved to technical mount and the tap came easily from a rear naked choke.

Fight fans are quick to declare a fighter 'done', and it seems like that was the case with Rory MacDonald. Paul Daley is not a top five welterweight but he is far from a slouch. The sublime showing that MacDonald put on sets him up for a meeting with the winner of Douglas Lima versus Lorenz Larkin and it is likely that he'll head into either of those matches as the favourite. Yes, he fell short against the ferocious Robbie Lawler and was bamboozled by the distance striking of Stephen Thompson, but this is the same man who outlasted and outclassed Demian Maia, and who made Tyron Woodley's usual game look completely ineffective in another flawless showing. MacDonald is the real deal, signing at Bellator in the prime of his career, and that alone has made the Bellator / UFC competition far more compelling.

Swarm-as-Swarm-Can

Linton Vassell might be the most underappreciated light heavyweight in the world. That is not to say he's going to challenge Jon Jones anytime soon, but there is a great chance he is the best light heavyweight that most fight fans have never heard of. At Bellator 179 Vassell added a third victory to his recent streak and looked good doing it against former Bellator light heavyweight champion, Liam McGeary and he showed some interesting looks from the top while doing it.

Vassell has been working with Neil Melanson for some time, and Melanson was in Vassell's corner for this fight. Melanson is one of the most interesting coaches in the game today, Melanson's book, Youtube videos, and instructional DVDs are well worth the time and money, providing a unique catch wrestling-esque philosophy on top and bottom positions. Where Vassell has previously been a very formulaic grappler—takedown, mount, back and rear naked choke if they give it—this fight showed off some more interesting techniques from top position. Never posturing up in McGeary's guard, Vassell spent most of his 'riding time' in the first round doing little, but each time McGeary opened his guard to make something happen Vassell would immediately advance to the half guard.

McGeary was constantly trying to get his forearms in front of Vassell's head, which was low through most of the fight, and get the shoulder pressure off so that he could attempt an attack or improve his position. Throughout the bout Vassell made good use of this. From half guard, Vassell reach around McGeary's head with the cross facing hand, locked up his grips on the far arm and then freed McGeary's head in order to attack an Americana shoulder lock. This threatened McGeary to the point where he had to open his guard and turn to his side, freeing Vassell to pass to mount.

In a very unusual occurrence, the Americana was a consistent threat in this fight. You just don't see Americanas applied at the highest levels with any kind of consistency—Jon Jones versus Vitor Belfort comes to mind, and then almost nothing else—so it was a treat watching Vassell use his shoulder pressure to get the same reaction out of McGeary and go for it a few times throughout this bout.

This catching McGeary's wrist when Vassell's arm was behind McGeary's head played off well with the stockade that Vassell attacked a couple of times in the fight. The commentators seemed confused about Vassell abandoning mount shortly after acquiring it, but review of the footage shows Vassell sliding his right arm behind McGeary's head and into his far armpit. Dismounting and walking around can yield a powerful old school neck crank from here. McGeary was quick enough to free his head, however.

But Vassell kept looking for it.

For an example of an attempt that came closer, we turn to catch wrestling legend, Minoru Suzuki. We covered his attacks in The Brutal Catch Wrestling of Minoru Suzuki and The Continued Catch Wrestling Adventures of Minoru Suzuki . Here his opponent is put under some decent strain before their head squirms free.

Vassell continued to attempt to catch the armpit (for the stockade) or the wrist (for the Americana) from under McGeary's head, and ultimately it was squirming to avoid these that left McGeary's elbow wide open for Vassell to slide through and into an arm triangle attempt. Another unusual look came from Vassell as he very deliberately pushed his own right leg into half guard. Neil Melanson is a believer in locking the opponent's legs in place when attempting arm triangles. Choosing to stay in the guard locks the opponent in place and prevents him from attempting a running escape or bringing his own leg up to his arm in order to grab it and create space between his shoulder and neck.

The rest of the fights on Bellator 179 were nothing to write home about, but the main and co-main were easily worth the time taken to tune in.