TORONTO – Like every fighter on UFC 129's card, Jason MacDonald has been asked a million times how he feels about competing at event watched live by 55,000 people. He has no problem saying that's the least of his concerns.
"I'm fighting for my job," he said Thurday following an open workout in support of the event, which takes place Saturday as UFC 129.
If MacDonald sounds like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, he just might be. Things have not gone so well for him inside the octagon as of late. Once a red-hot contender in the UFC middleweight division, he traded wins over solid competition with losses against some of the strongest competitors in the weight class – former champ Rich Franklin, contender Demian Maia, and current contender Yushin Okami among them.
After being released from the promotion on a two-fight skid two years ago, he worked his way back with three victories on the regional circuit.
Then things again went really bad. In a fight with John Salter at UFC 113, he threw a high kick in the first round and suffered a badly broken leg when he was taken down. He spent most of the year rehabilitating the injury, unable to do much of anything with his legs. He tried to return nine months later at UFC 124 but sustained another injury in training and was forced to withdraw.
It's now been 13 months since MacDonald stepped inside the octagon. So forget the spectacle of UFC 129 – he needs a win, and he needs it badly.
"Everyone talks about the magnitude of the event," he said. "But for me, the real magnitude of it is coming back from a huge opportunity, and having an opportunity to do it all over again."
MacDonald (24-14 MMA, 5-6 UFC) meets Ryan Jensen (15-7 MMA, 2-5 UFC), who's hopscotched between wins and losses in his five UFC fights and also could be on the chopping block.
Among all those questions about the significance of UFC 129 are questions about whether MacDonald is fully healed and ready to come back. After all, he suffered a grisly injury – a broken tibia, fibula and a dislocated ankle all at the same time – and those are the kinds of injuries from which athletes never return.
But MacDonald said he wouldn't have signed up for Saturday's fight if he wasn't ready to go. He's put the injury behind him and is now focused on what he needs to do to win. Two steel plates and 12 screws say that his ankle will hold.
"It's not a bad ankle," he said. "If anything, it's the good ankle."
Still, "The Athlete" admits a loss could be disastrous in the short-term, if not his entire pursuit of a career in MMA. At 35, he doesn't have a lot of comebacks left in him.
"I'm realistic about where I'm at in my career," MacDonald said. "I'm taking things one fight at a time right now, and Saturday night, I'm fighting for my job. This fight means everything to me."
So you'll forgive him if he's not soaking in the view at Rogers Centre. There are more important things on his mind.
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