UFC 170's Rory MacDonald never in Georges St-Pierre's shadow, always on his own championship journey

While the rest of the mixed martial arts (MMA) world is missing former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight Georges St-Pierre because he decided to take a break from the fight game, Rory MacDonald doesn't miss having to answer questions about a potential fight between the two training partners ... and great friends.

During today's (Feb. 20, 2014) UFC 170 pre-fight press conference (watch video here), "Ares" was asked to respond about how he felt to finally get out from underneath St-Pierre's shadow.

According to the young Canadian, there was never a shadow, just a bevy of repetitive media inquiries always aimed his way that he was tired of answering, which is a line of questioning he is now happy to have behind him.

His words:

"I never really felt like it was a shadow. It is less pressure not having to respond to the questions if I'm going to fight him, when am I going to fight him and this and that. So that whole thing is gone, so that's a relief. I'm just doing my own thing one fight at a time. I'm on my own journey to the title. There was never a shadow cast upon me with Georges."

Indeed, the two Canadian 170-pound standouts have stood firm in their stance to never put their friendship aside for a potential scrap.

Something at which UFC President Dana White often often scoffed.

With St-Pierre out of the picture (for now), MacDonald can rest easy that he no longer has to worry about putting his championship dreams on hold and answer questions about fighting his mentor.

Nonetheless, he'll have to climb his way back up to the top after having his title run derailed by Robbie Lawler at UFC 167 in Nov. 2013. And that championship journey begins anew this weekend (Feb. 22, 2014) when he faces the highly-experienced Demian Maia at UFC 170 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Can he get back to the back to the top before having to answer any old, annoying questions?