"I needed it," a candid MacDonald admitted on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.
"I think it's a collection of things, it's been leading up to (this). I think it's just my mental state, the way I've been thinking leading up to fights. I've been more interested in after the fight, rather than getting into the fight.
"My fights before," he continued, "The most exciting point for me was actually getting into the fight. I was hungry. I wanted to destroy my opponents, and I was hungry. I had that fire in me to fight. I think it shows in both of my performances this year, that I didn't have that fire."
"I just don't think I was interested," MacDonald admitted. "I felt like my Ellenberger fight, I think I fought a really good fight. I was technically on-point, I was sharp, and watching the fight I wasn't disappointed. But I didn't have fun at the end of the day, and that's what I do this for. I want to express myself when I'm up there, like an artist painting a picture. It's just basically self-expression for me, and I don't think I did that in these last two fights this year.
"I didn't enjoy them. I didn't walk out of the cage knowing that I had fun. Usually, win or lose, in my fights in the past, I've always had fun. I've always enjoyed my time fighting. This year I didn't enjoy fighting."
It's become a cliché for losing fighters to justify the experience as a positive, saying that it led them back to a reborn sense of motivation. For MacDonald, though, whether it's the surprising honesty with which he spoke, or the hint of anger caught in his throat, the sentiment appears very real indeed.
"Everything was coming very easy for me the last three years since losing to Carlos (Condit). The fights were going very smoothly, and I just felt like, wow, it's becoming very easy. So I kind of let my guard down a bit," he said.
"I needed to lose. I needed to get into a hard fight. I'm very motivated, more than ever now. I'm very hungry. I feel like I have that fire back."