After coming up short against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 154, going the distance in a very entertaining five-round fight in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Carlos Condit will return to the scene of the crime to take on St. Pierre's teammate, Rory MacDonald, at UFC 158 on March 16, 2013.
The bout will be a rematch of their 2010 fight at UFC 115 --- which also took place in Canada --- and saw "The Natural Born Killer" defeat "Ares" after forcing a controversial referee stoppage with only seven seconds remaining in the fight. With the win, Condit became the first and only man to defeat the rising star, and it's been a loss that haunts MacDonald to this day.
Perhaps that's the reason Rory took the opportunity to call out Condit immediately after his dominating victory over B.J. Penn this past December at UFC on FOX 5, in hopes of exacting some revenge all while putting the hurt on him and embarrassing him in Canada in a manner that will traumatize Carlos for the rest of his life.
While the former UFC interim welterweight champion admits Rory has improved drastically since their first fight two years ago, he feels MacDonald is too emotionally involved in his quest for revenge, which is something the Jackson-Winkeljohn-trained fighter is ready to take advantage of.
His words from his recent appearance on "The MMA Hour:"
"He looked really good, his stand up has come a long way. He's kind of developed a lot of new weapons and he looked great. He's more versatile, he has more tools in his tool belt. I had a feeling he was going to do that (call him out). I know his loss to me wasn't sitting too well with him and I was excited. It's a great fight and I think we're going to put on a hell of an entertaining fight. It was what I wanted to hear. I have to be better than I was in the last fight. He is coming into this fight with a lot of emotions and a lot of anger and I really think I can use that to my advantage."
Rory has proven he can put all emotions aside and get down to business once the cage door slams as evidenced by his complete and utter annihilation of "The Prodigy" in Seattle last month after the two were involved in plenty of back-and-forth banter which only added fuel to the Penn/TriStar rivalry.
Then again, it's safe to say the emotion level goes up significantly if you're trying to topple the only man that can claim he has a win over you in 15 professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fights.
What's your take Maniacs, will the young Canadian sensation let his emotions get the best of him? Can Condit make it two for two against "Ares?" Or will Rory be able to put his loss to "The Natural Born Killer" behind him once and for all with a win on his home turf?