MacDonald on UFC: Time to move on

It’s been a couple weeks since my last fight and as I think back and say to myself I should have done this and should have done that, I also tell myself I can’t dwell on it forever.

After having as many fights as I’ve had in my career, I know there comes a time where you just have to stop dwelling on a loss and move on, so I pretty much have.

The other thing that’s going on is I’m currently dismantling things at my MMA gym. It’s been a long hard decision but my wife and I decided to close the MMA portion of my gym and just keep the CrossFit portion (the two have been side-by-side since we opened it.

I tried to keep it open as long as I could, but the reality is (and I’ve seen this in a number of gyms) it’s hard to keep an MMA gym running and pay the bills on just MMA fighters.

I don’t know how American Top Team or Xtreme Couture runs things, but a lot of the big gyms run stuff that cater to everyday, normal people. And for those who just want to do MMA as a hobby, it’s tough because they don’t want to get punched in the face; they don’t really want to spar.

So teaching MMA classes becomes tough because one night you may have 22 people in class, but the next night just four people.

Our fitness gym does very well, but it’s hard to pay the lease on the MMA gym every month when you can’t rely on a solid base of students.

And at this point for me, it’s more important to be home spending time with my kids. To be at the gym all day teaching CrossFit and then MMA at night, it doesn’t leave much time for parenting.

I’m definitely sad to see it go. It’s been good for me over the years and I’ve trained some good up-and-coming fighters. Fortunately, they’re all going to move across the street to another gym, Arashi-Do, owned by Gary Vig. I started training at his gym years and years ago, and he just moved across the road to a bigger location.

We’re all going to move over there and will continue to train together. I’m going to step aside from a teaching and coaching role, and focus on family and my own training.

I’m also motivated to go to Calgary and train at Josh Russell’s and get my jiu-jitsu black belt.

Next week I’ll be going down to Houston for the UFC Fan Expo. I was signed by one of my good sponsors CrossFit to go there and man a booth and sign autographs. Of course, I will also take in the fights and then catch a Sunday morning flight to come back home because it’s Thanksgiving and that’s my favourite holiday.

And with everything going on, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that there’s a fight card this weekend. And it includes a title fight!

So here are my picks:

Watch UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson Saturday at 9 p.m. on Sportsnet ONE.

Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson

Everybody knows I’m a big Cruz fan. I say this every time he fights. To hurt him, you have to be able to hit him; you have to be able to find him. Urijah Faber is the No. 2 fighter at 135 pounds and he was unable to do that. I think Johnson will have a hard time, and he’ll be extremely outsized. So I’m going with Cruz to defend.

Pat Barry vs. Stefan Struve

I think what this one boils down to is Struve will have a huge height, length and reach advantage. Barry can’t leg kick Struve without getting punched. That will be his strategy to use his distance but Barry likes to brawl. If it turns into a brawl, then the fight will be in his favour, but if it’s a technical fight, Struve should be able to use his distance. I’m picking Struve by decision.

Anthony Johnson vs. Charlie Brenneman

Ever since Brenneman stepped up on short notice and took it to Rick Story, I’ve become a fan, but he’ll be grossly outsized in this fight. Brenneman is a fairly small for a 170-pounder and Johnson is a huge for his size, and not a bad wrestler. He should take this one.

Matt Wiman vs. Mac Danzig

This is a good fight and a hard one to call. Danzig looked great in his last bout with a big quick win. Wiman is a scrapper, you can’t count him out. But I’ll go with Wiman. I think he’ll outwork Danzig.

Shane Roller vs. T.J. Grant

I think this is a good fight for T.J. Roller is a little bit unorthodox in striking, but predominantly a striker with good submissions. Grant is good on the ground and has good standing. I’m going to obviously go with my Canadian buddy and pick T.J. by TKO.

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