• UFC Fight Night 24

Michael McDonald: UFC star of the future

Michael McDonald's wrestling offence was impressive © Getty Images

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All eyes in Seattle were trained on Phil Davis, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Anthony Johnson and Dan Hardy at UFC Fight Night 24, but the true star to emerge on Saturday went by the name of Michael McDonald.

The youngest man on the UFC roster at the age of 20, McDonald walked away with the $55,000 Fight of the Night cheque - and the victory - to mark a quite magnificent UFC debut. His opponent Edwin Figueroa also put himself firmly in the display window to earn an army of new fans, but it was McDonald who showed enough promise to suggest he could be a UFC champion of the future.

Primarily a kickboxer, having taken up the sport at the age of 10, McDonald's striking was emphatic in its crispness and unerring in its accuracy against Figueroa. Starting the bantamweight fight in a similar manner to how Martin Kampmann recently tormented Diego Sanchez, McDonald evaded Figueroa's wild haymakers to consistently pepper his target in a dominant first round, sending El Feroz packing with several painful reminders of why he should think twice before wading in again.

By the end of the first stanza McDonald had landed a catalogue of heavy hooks, uppercuts and head kicks, but he changed things up in the second to deliver a full exhibition of his talents.

Only once has the Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt been beaten in 13 fights, and it is no surprise given his already superbly well-rounded MMA game - at the age of 20. Figueroa was probably the only man present at the KeyArena on Saturday who knows how he resisted multiple second-round submission attempts from McDonald, who attacked from all angles.

Displaying an explosive takedown offence that will make his striking all the more unpredictable as he develops, McDonald first locked on a rear naked choke and then a seemingly inescapable armbar as Figueroa grimaced in agony. It was a night for amazing submission escapes with Dan Hardy later surviving against Anthony Johnson, but Figueroa's resistance against McDonald pushed the bounds of human torture as his arm contorted in every angle other than what was natural.

Nevertheless, McDonald's full arsenal had been shown, with pinpoint strikes, powerful takedowns and slick submissions all mixed into one performance that, for the purest, arguably translated into a better fight than the one produced by the previously mentioned Kampmann and Sanchez.

The youngster did tire in the third, showing he needs to improve his cardio, but with Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz confirmed as the bantamweight division's next title fight, UFN 24 may just have given fans a glimpse of the future.

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