The one big question which lingered throughout Conor McGregor’s meteoric rise through the UFC featherweight ranks was how he’d fare when he squared off with an elite wrestler.
Saturday night, he was forced to confront those questions when he was thrown in with one of the sport’s finest wrestlers, Chad Mendes, in the main event of UFC 189 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas an interim featherweight title fight.
Consider the question answered.
For the better part of two rounds, McGregor took all Mendes could dish out. Then he showed the heart of a champion, rallying late in the second round to finish Mendes via TKO. The time of the stoppage was 4:57 of the second round.
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“I’ve been hearing all this time that I’ve been protected from this style of opponent,” said McGregor (18-2), who is now 6-0 in the UFC. “That I’ve been gifted a title shot. So when my title shot went running, and I was given the challenge I was supposed to be protected from, I knew I was going to prove to people I was the true fighter.”
McGregor demonstrated early that he was going to get the best of the standup, as he cut off the angles and peppered Mendes with body kicks and his big left hand.
Mendes responded by going to his bread and butter, as he took McGregor down and landed elbows. It was a scenario which repeated itself in the second round, as he rained down elbows and opened a big cut over McGregor’s eye.
Mendes, who accepted the fight on two weeks’ notice, made his fatal mistake when he went for a choke, which enabled McGregor to get to his feet. Second later, he drilled Mendes with a bomb of a left hand, then rained down punches until referee Herb Dean waved it off.
“I knew I could go all f—— day,” McGregor said. “I knew if he got me down I could keep going. I knew, I worked him with the body, and the precision of the left hand. No one can take that left hand.”
McGregor, holding the Irish flag, collapsed to the mat in tears upon winning, as a heavily Irish crowd exploded in delirium.
Mendes, for his part, expressed respect for McGregor after the two traded barbs all week.
The result sets up what promises to be one of the biggest events in UFC history, when McGregor eventually meets longtime champion Jose Aldo, who pulled out of the fight two weeks in advance with a broken rib.
“I want to thank Conor for accepting the fight on two weeks notice,” Mendes (17-3) said. “To go from Aldo to a completely different matchup, the guy’s tough.”