UFC 189 features two championship fights on Saturday in Las Vegas, but one of them will be for an interim title, as No. 3 featherweight contender Conor McGregor takes on No. 1 Chad Mendes as a solid betting favorite in the main event.
McGregor (17-2) has received a lot of early backing from MMA bettors, jumping to minus-175 (bet $175 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark against Mendes (17-2), who is the plus-145 underdog (bet $100 to win $145) despite suffering the only two losses of his career to UFC champion Jose Aldo.
Aldo was originally slated to face McGregor but had to pull out of the fight because of a rib injury, giving Mendes his second title shot in three bouts. Mendes and Aldo battled in what was named 2014 Fight of the Year at UFC 179 last October 25, with the champ doing just enough to earn a unanimous-decision victory over five rounds and defend his championship for the seventh time after being promoted from the WEC.
But McGregor is the UFC’s newest star, and he will have sizable eight-inch reach and three-inch height advantages against Mendes when he steps into the Octagon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The brash Irishman is riding a 13-fight winning streak and owns a perfect 5-0 mark in the UFC following three consecutive TKO victories that also won him Performance of the Night bonuses.
In the co-main event, UFC welterweight champ Robbie Lawler (25-10, one no-contest) will meet challenger Rory MacDonald (18-2), whose lone loss in his past nine fights came against Lawler in 2013.
Lawler was on the right side of a split-decision victory against MacDonald at UFC 167 and went on to win three of his next four, including a split decision over former champ Johny Hendricks last December for the title.
Regardless, much like McGregor, MacDonald is viewed as a future UFC champ and has been tabbed as a minus-185 betting favorite by oddsmakers in the rematch with Lawler (+150).
Both fighters have won three in a row, with MacDonald scoring a third-round TKO victory in his most recent bout against Tarec Saffiedine last October 4 in a Performance of the Night.
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