Rory MacDonald Knows It’s Unlikely Controversial Gleison Tibau Result Will be Overturned

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The "Red King" doesn't think the New Jersey Athletic Commission will ever change it.

The path of Rory MacDonald (22-7-1, 1-1 PFL) in the Professional Fighters League got off to a great start when he submitted Curtis Millender with a first-round rear-naked choke at PFL 2. In his second fight in the PFL 2021 Regular Season, the former Bellator MMA 170-pound kingpin had to battle for three rounds with a combative Gleison Tibau. While it appeared that MacDonald was in control of the fight the whole time, he found himself on the losing side of a split decision when it came to hear the judges' scorecards. As much as most media members and insiders, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship title contender was surprised to hear the verdict. Now, MacDonald hopes to see it overturned, but he also knows that his chances are meager.

“It was very clear that I won the fight,” he said. “I feel like I obviously won the fight, it’s really no controversy there. I just think that we were fighting in a place where the commission they do some shady things. It happens sometimes, you know? It’s unfortunate. I would have liked to see the decision overturned but looking into it, it just seemed impossible. You would have to go to the commission whose fault it was, whose doing it was and they would have to do an investigation on themselves and that’s obviously not going to work. We don’t have any evidence of like, like solid evidence, to make a case in court or anything, so there’s really nothing we could do. It’s just one of those things that you know it sucks.”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog begun in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.