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A third fight settling the score between former Bellator Welterweight Champion Rory MacDonald and the current titleholder Douglas Lima could not happen.
MacDonald's tenure with Bellator was over before the trilogy could be completed, and the fighter moved on with a new contract with PFL. While speaking to MMA Junkie about a possible trilogy, he said he was not too worried about it at present.
MacDonald says the trilogy might happen
The two of them went head to head for the first time in January 2018, where MacDonald claimed the title by defeating Lima via unanimous decision. Lima took it back in October 2019 and has been the reigning Champ since.
Many saw a potential trilogy happening, but MacDonald signing up with PFL and Bellator not making an offer for him to stay made sure that it would not happen anytime soon. However, he himself is not too pessimistic about it. MacDonald sees them crossing paths again sometime down the line. But he is not thinking about it much. 'C'est la vie' happens to be his mantra for now.
"It is what it is, you know? Who’s to say we won’t meet up later down the road? We’re not in the same organization at the moment, but I still see myself fighting for a long time, and maybe he is too. You never know where our paths cross again. I don’t worry about it too much. Competition, he won one, I won one, c’est la vie. On to the next."
Despite everyone's surprise, MacDonald feels that moving to PFL was the perfect decision for his career, especially since Bellator did not seem much keen on signing him up.
"Bellator had the opportunity to, you know, not have me as a free agent. But I think just between this organization and wanting to take the risk on free agency, there was discussion, and obviously Bellator, they had their interest. But when it came time that I was able to talk to other promotions, I wanted to play the field. I wanted to see what options were out there, and the best option out for me was PFL."
