The UFC put on its third event from the TD Garden in Boston on Sunday night. The show was headlined by the promotion’s fastest-rising star, Conor McGregor. The Notorious had a rabid Irish-American crowd on the edge of their seats anticipating his arrival throughout the entire night.
His second-round TKO over No. 10-ranked Dennis Siver earned him a featherweight title shot opposite champion Jose Aldo, who was in attendance. After the victory McGregor jumped the cage and lunged straight for Aldo in the front row and confronted the champion with a menacing scream.
We weren’t treated to an in-cage faceoff between the two, which UFC President Dana White explained was due to Aldo’s superstition about not entering the Octagon unless it is to fight. The stage is set now for the biggest featherweight title fight in UFC history, so let’s take a look at how we got there with my notes from UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Siver.
Fight Week
The week leading up to the event had an uncommon amount of buzz behind it partly because of the thousands of people who flew to Boston from Ireland to support their fellow countryman. The open workouts were held at the UFC Gym in Boston.
Fans packed inside the gym for the opportunity to watch McGregor hit pads and spar in the cage with his longtime friend and training partner Tom Egan, who was the first Irish person to fight in the Octagon back at UFC 93 in 2009.
The media day for UFC Fight Night was held at Ned Devine’s Irish pub in downtown Boston and was also open to the public. Fans packed and broke out into several chants throughout the afternoon of “Ole, Ole, Ole,” and erupted when it was time for McGregor to face off with Siver.
The weigh-ins were held at the Orpheum Theatre, and the crowd arrived early for a fan Q&A with Aldo. Aldo was heckled, chanted at and mocked by the riled up Irish who made the journey, as well as local fans from the Northeast.
It mirrored the treatment that McGregor received in Brazil when he flew there for a Q&A prior to Aldo’s most recent title defense against Chad Mendes. Both men seem to know how to energize their rival’s fanbase, and both are comfortable as the bad guy.
Aldo was also in attendance for the fight and throughout the night was taking photos in the media room wearing a crown and holding a staff, as well as holding up a poster of a Photoshopped McGregor made to look like a joker that read “Go Joker, Go.” Whenever the champion was shown on screen, he was received with a chorus of boos from the Boston crowd. They knew who their hero was, and it wasn’t Aldo.
Fight Night Numbers
The event drew $1.34 million at the gate, with 13,828 fans coming to TD Garden to watch the meteoric rise of McGregor continue. Compare that to when the UFC made its debut in Massachusetts in August 2010 with UFC 118.
BJ Penn lost a rematch with Frankie Edgar for the UFC lightweight title that night, and the event sold 11,205 tickets for a $2.8 million gate, according to numbers provided by the MSAC to MMAJunkie.com. Its return in August 2013, headlined by Chael Sonnen vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua sold 10,795 tickets for a $1.53 million gate.
Straight Blast Gym Goes 3-0 in Boston
McGregor fought alongside two of his Straight Blast Gym Ireland teammates, welterweight Cathal Pendred and flyweight Paddy Holohan. All three men were victorious under the lights at TD Garden, but they weren’t without controversy.
Holohan was up first of the three men, and being placed early on the prelim card meant that the crowd was fresh and energetic for their first Irish fighter of the night. Holohan won a unanimous decision over Shane Howell and improved his UFC record to 2-1.
Pendred competed in the night’s featured preliminary bout just before the main card kicked off. He got badly hurt by a punch from his opponent Sean Spencer and ate several more unanswered shots from Spencer throughout the round.
In a fight that nearly everyone had Spencer winning, Pendred was inexplicably declared the winner by all three judges, something that even White disagreed with. Pendred showed his warrior spirit by recovering and staying in the fight, but the decision was highly questionable.
Boston Strong
Aside from the SGB fighters, American Top Team (ATT) fighter and Boston area native Charles Rosa competed on the card. Complete with a signature Bruins jersey and Bruins walkout music, Rosa got the crowd amped up like it was a Bruins Stanley Cup playoff game and put on an exciting back-and-forth fight with Providence, Rhode Island, native Sean Soriano.
The two train at opposing gyms in Florida, Soriano being a Blackzilian and Rosa training out of ATT. The two gyms will be featured on the next installment of The Ultimate Fighter, which begins filming this week.
Rosa finished the fight with a third-round d’arce choke, which occurred exactly as the score for the Patriots game was displayed on the big screens in the arena.
Another Boston native, John “Doomsday” Howard, did not fare so well in front of his hometown crowd. Howard took on Lorenz Larkin, who was making his first drop to welterweight. Larkin said before the fight that the cut wasn’t all that difficult and proved against Howard that it was the right decision.
Larkin went toe-to-toe with the hard-hitting Bostonian and leveled Howard with a huge punch then followed up with a barrage that caused the referee to wave off the fight in the first round, giving Larkin the win by TKO.
Fight Night Notes and Quotes
Throughout the night, McGregor was shown on screen watching along in the dressing room, and each time the Irishman’s mug appeared in the arena, the crowd roared. The event security was kept busy by the numerous fans who had to be physically carted out for being overly intoxicated.
During McGregor’s walk out to the cage, fans had dislodged the small LED lights from their noisemakers and were sending them straight to the arena floor, along with quarters and screws and whatever else was in their pockets. Luckily for all, the fan favorite came out victorious, and we were spared the hostility of a Boston sporting event gone bad.
McGregor enjoyed a cup of Midleton Very Rare Whiskey at the post-fight presser and gave his thoughts on his performance, saying:
“I said the two-minute mark, but as it came closer I was thinking that I don’t want to rush this. I want to get in and I want to feel this…I wanted to find comfort in there and find calm. This is my third contest back-to-back-to-back from ACL surgery.”
He went on to give his thoughts on the news that his crack at the featherweight title will take place in Las Vegas in May, saying:
As you can see, it’s tradition. I remove a head. I bring it backstage. I place on Mr. Fertitta’s and Mr. White desk. ‘Here you go, boss. Another one done.’ And we go and discuss big business. Big business just so happens to be in Viva Las Vegas. So we will go to Las Vegas, and one more head will be collected.
Cerrone Edges Past Henderson, Notches 7th Straight Victory
Another fighter who solidified his place as a top contender in Boston was Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who fought Benson Henderson in the co-main event. Cerrone took the fight on two weeks’ notice, after winning a unanimous decision over Myles Jury at UFC 183 earlier this month.
In the third encounter between Cerrone and Henderson, each round was extremely close, there was a feeling-out process on the feet in the first round and neither overcame the other. It was a well-fought, technical fight, and after three rounds Cerrone was the winner.
It marks his seventh win in a row, with all seven fights occurring within a 14-month period. Not only did Cowboy cement his spot at the top of the lightweight division, he achieved he legendary status of winning two fights in two weeks.
Cerrone had this to say about the win at the post-fight press conference:
“Ben is a friend of mine inside the cage and out, so it’s definitely a tough win to celebrate. Seven in a row, I feel good. It’s time to take some time off, and talk with Dana and Lorenzo after this, go see the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and just hang out.”
If the UFC’s most recent visit to Boston proved one thing, it’s that there are still potential stars out there in mixed martial arts. Aldo, in his reign as featherweight champion, has yet to encounter an adversary who will both test him as a fighter and attract fans the way the smooth-talking Irishman does.
McGregor has passed every test to date with flying colors and, after igniting the crowd in Boston, looks to continue his trajectory by becoming only the second featherweight champion in the UFC history and the first Irishman to claim UFC gold.
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