Rory MacDonald on taking more short notice fights in 2013, VADA testing for fight with B.J. Penn

Rory MacDonald's biggest career fight is coming up this December at UFC on Fox 5 as he takes on UFC legend B.J. Penn. It's been a long path to the fight with some odd twists and turns, last seeing a delay from the originally scheduled UFC 152 date when Rory suffered forehead cut in training.

Having not fought since April seems to be messing with Rory's head as the 23-year-old MacDonald says that he doesn't need time to prepare for a fight like "everyone else" (via MMA Fighting):

"I like to fight and I want to make it a point next year to take fights on shorter notice," he said. "It just works better for me and my mind set. I feel like lately I've been trying to do what everyone else does, and I'm not everybody else. Some people need eight weeks to get ready for a fight and I really don't think I do because of the way I look at my skills. I just need to be healthy. As long as I'm healthy I can fight at the drop of a pin. If you tell me, 'Rory, go fight that guy,' I'll go do it. I don't need that time. I just need to be healthy."

This will also be the first fight in UFC history to have VADA (Volunteer Anti-Doping Agency) testing as the fighters have agreed to go through the expanded drug testing.

The testing almost didn't happen as Penn wanted to push off the release of any positive tests to after the fight, something VADA wouldn't ever allow. But it was able to be salvaged when both fighters agreed to the standard agency procedures.

MacDonald did talk a bit about testing and why he doesn't care what his opponent is on:

"I would fight anybody who's on testosterone or whatever," he said. "It does not bother me at all."

...

"Everybody's looking for an edge in athletics, and if people would just realize the biggest edge is up here," he says, pointing to his head, "they could show their best side. That's all I need. Yeah protein helps, but at the end of the day if you're a fighter and ready to fight at this very second, it's all up here. And if you feel you need testosterone to make you better, you're not going to be as good. I really don't think in such a high skill level sport, that strength is going to be the biggest issue. if you rely on strength in the sport, you're going to be weeded out. There's going to be someone that's more technical than you or stronger than you. So in this sport I really feel it's better to have more skills than strength. If you can have both, great. But you don't need to do that stuff. It's unhealthy, it's stupid."