Mendes reflects on championship epic with McGregor: It’s a fight ‘I’ll never forget’

Chad Mendes took a moment to reflect on his interim featherweight title bout with Conor McGregor at UFC 189.

This past Thursday marked the four-year anniversary of Conor McGregor’s epic title bout with Chad Mendes at UFC 189, which saw ‘The Notorious’ TKO ‘Money’ to capture the interim featherweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

McGregor paid homage to the bout on Thursday’s four-year anniversary, and Mendes followed up with a post of his own via Instagram.

“4 years ago wow,” McGregor posted on Twitter.

“So crazy to think it’s been 4 years today since I shared the octagon with @thenotoriousmma . What a crazy experience. Conor and Aldo were scheduled to fight, but due to a rib injury Aldo was forced out of the fight. I got the call from Dana on 10 days notice and went straight from fishing mode into training mode. It was the first time the UFC had live performers for our walk out songs. Sinead O’Connor sent Mcgregor out and my boy @aaronlewismusic sent me out with “country boy”. Not sure where the last 4 years went but that’s definitely a fight I’ll never forget!” Mendes reminisced in a slightly lengthier Instagram post.

Following the Mendes fight, McGregor went on to KO then-pound-for-pound No. 1 Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds to unify the featherweight titles before moving up in weight to capture the lightweight title with a career-defining victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

That was almost three years ago, though, and McGregor recently hinted that he is ‘done’ with MMA after his most recent defeat against current lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.

Mendes (18-5 MMA), on the other hand, officially announced his retirement earlier this week. The three-time title challenger last fought at UFC 232, where he was knocked out by streaking featherweight contender Alexander Volkanovski at The Forum in Inglewood, California.