One short quote and an “international” incident is created. It’s not often that Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald fires off a shot during an interview. J-Mac tends to pick his words carefully and is 99.9% of the time very respective of opponents.

But in his interview about returning to the MFC, MacDonald hit Defcon 3 when the subject turned to “Mr. International” Shonie Carter, saying he likely wouldn’t consider a rematch with Carter since he now considered the longtime veteran “a joke” at this point in his career.

Carter didn’t take to kindly to those words and spouted off on his own saying he would “make him bleed” if they fought again.

One paragraph and all of a sudden a potentially explosive superfight is born. Wouldn’t MacDonald vs. Carter make for a fantastic battle at MFC 22: Payoff? MacDonald always fights better when there’s anger involved. Need an example? He was in awe (and perhaps rightfully so) about getting to face Rich Franklin and he came out tentative. He was PO’d at Rory Singer and destroyed him with a rare show of ground-and-pound force.

MacDonald is probably right, that a fight with Carter isn’t exactly what should be at the top of his to-do list. But all of a sudden a fight with Carter may very well be the best thing for him. There’s animosity brewing and if this fight does come together there is no doubt that Carter will stir it up even more, and of course, make a show of himself during fight week. MacDonald detests showiness and especially if Carter tries to make a mockery of him in front of his largest fan base in his own home town.

This has simply become the fight for MacDonald. It’s a golden opportunity to get back in the saddle and demonstrate that when his buttons are pushed, he can fire off an assault that will put him within shooting range of the coveted MFC middleweight title.

LOOKING BACK: MFC 21 is in the books and there were some interesting side stories to the event. Three fights went the distance and there was, to say the least, some curious scoring by the ringside judges. I can’t quite fathom how Ryan Fortin was edged out by William Richey in a prelim bout that saw Fortin constantly move forward and throw strikes while Richey mostly waited, wandered, and walked around. Richey did occasionally score with takedowns and had a good kimura at one point, but it was clear to most at ringside that Fortin had done considerably more, and more than enough, to win the bout. The Travis Galbraith-David Heath fight also ended with some bizarre scoring and again a decision that seemed to suggest that the fighter pressing the action was less rewarded. The main event title fight was curious to some and bang on to others – exactly the way judging should be in many respects. Some figured that Trevor Prangley didn’t do enough to take the belt from Emanuel Newton while others reckoned that Newton’s lack of offence put his belt in jeopardy.

WHAT’S NEXT? Some fighters left themselves in tricky spots following MFC 21 while others raised their stock. Aron Lofton’s setback to veteran Marvin Eastman leaves the popular Oklahoman in a tight spot. He has mowed through some opposition and struggled against those at a somewhat higher level. Here is perhaps a fight to settle the issue of who’s going where – how about Lofton against Roger Hollett (another up-and-down figure)? The winner breathes another life, the loser has some hard facts to face. As for Eastman, he looked better than he had in a long time and now could be a threat in the deepest division in the MFC. Could he wind up facing Ryan Jimmo, a winner of 10 straight fights? And by moving down to middleweight, who is next in line for Travis Galbraith, who could become a star in his own backyard with some polish.

BIT BY BIT: MFC 22 is likely to have at least one title fight so here’s hoping it’s a stern test for newly minted lightweight kingpin Antonio McKee … Good on Dwayne Lewis, a scrappy and popular figure who’s cranked up his game with two impressive knockouts in his last two bouts (vs. Jason Kuchera in Heat XC and against Jay Whitford at MFC 21) … Heat XC3 main event Corey Macdonald vs. Thiago Goncalves should be a nasty affair – you gotta love that … My vote is cast – I want to see Bobby Lashley back in the MFC.