It was possibly the fight of the year. Robbie Lawler defended his UFC welterweight championship against Rory MacDonald in a fantastic bout that went into the fifth round Saturday night.
The opening round was slower than some may have expected, but it w…
It was possibly the fight of the year. Robbie Lawler defended his UFC welterweight championship against Rory MacDonald in a fantastic bout that went into the fifth round Saturday night.
The opening round was slower than some may have expected, but it was not light on technique and drama. Lawler was more tactical against MacDonald in their rematch, and the Canadian challenger held his own against the champion. The first five minutes of the fight was hard to call.
The champion got his offense going in the second round. He was able to land more frequently with combinations. It looked like he was well on his way to defending the title without much issue as MacDonald sported a busted up nose. He was having issues breathing but remained active against Lawler.
MacDonald fired back in the third and fourth rounds. He hurt Lawler with a high kick, and it seemed as if he was just moments away from getting the fight stopped. Instead, Lawler showcased his champion’s resolve by staying in the fight. He routinely assured referee John McCarthy that he was OK. MacDonald won the two frames to set up a potentially decisive fifth and final round.
It wouldn’t last long. Lawler landed a vicious punch down the pipe right on MacDonald’s broken nose. The Canadian grabbed his face and went to the mat. The fight was called just one minute into the round. Lawler retained in a high-level affair with plenty of action.
After the fight, the two went to the hospital to get fixed up. It was there that they took a photo that will surely live on in MMA folklore. Both men were battered, but MacDonald more so. He looked like a Comic Con fanatic who did a Voldemortcosplay. The warriors posed for a picture that would make almost any fighter rethink this business.
The co-main event was not talked about nearly enough prior to UFC 189, but it will most certainly be discussed in the aftermath of all that happened. These two fighters put themselves in the history books.
These kinds of battles can take years off an athlete’s career. We should be grateful they stepped into the cage to put on a show for us. There was no backing down. It was a chess match between the elite fighters of the welterweight division. It is the championship fight that we hope to get when we purchase events.
Their wounds from UFC 189 tell the tale of their epic encounter. It shows the world how courageous they are for stepping into the cage to find out who the baddest at 170 pounds is. These are the fighters we should be celebrating. They entertain us with fisticuffs, and this is the result.
Saturday night worked out darn well for the newly minted interim UFC featherweight champion, Conor McGregor. The Irish striker overcame some early adversity in his match at UFC 189 against Chad Mendes, wounding the accomplished wrestler with body kicks…
Saturday night worked out darn well for the newly minted interim UFC featherweight champion, Conor McGregor. The Irish striker overcame some early adversity in his match at UFC 189 against Chad Mendes, wounding the accomplished wrestler with body kicks before scoring an impressive second-round knockout with a devastating left hand. While he would receive a 12-pound piece of jewelry for his efforts, the ghost of the true featherweight champ, Jose Aldo, loomed large over the proceedings.
When pressed about his rival at the post-fight press conference, however, McGregor was in no mood to discuss him or their likely fight. Check out what he had to say at the post-fight press conference below(and warning, NSFW language peppered throughout):
“I’m going to put Jose at a distant memory right now because I don’t think he deserves to be spoken about,” he said to the assembled media. “He didn’t show up. … This was the event we built. He should have made that walk.”
McGregor, of course, is frustrated over Aldo’s withdrawal from the fight because of an injured rib. Two weeks ago, word broke through the Brazilian media (h/t MMAWeekly.com) that Aldo had suffered a broken rib. While that should have theoretically nixed the fight without incident, a confusing back–and–forth between the Aldo camp and UFC President Dana White regarding whether or not Aldo was physically capable of fighting (and whether or not he actually had a broken rib) erupted.
McGregor, unsurprisingly, took the opportunity to barb Aldo, questioning his confidence and willingness to fight him while boasting that he essentially trained for the fight “in a physical therapist’s room.”
While he would go on to say that Aldo was “done” and implied that a title unification bout may never actually occur, that should be taken with many grains of salt. Aldo vs. McGregor represents the biggest fight the UFC can make at the moment, and all involved parties stand to make a fair bit of cash, should it go down.
Watch Bleacher Report MMA over the coming months for more news on McGregor and Aldo…and keep an eye out for details on the soon-to-be-rescheduled title fight.
UFC 189 was an absolutely brilliant event with two excellent title fights.
In the co-main event, welterweight champion Robbie Lawler took on the enigmatic Rory MacDonald. Lawler, who has a diverse striking attack and an almost peerless cage savvy, was …
UFC 189 was an absolutely brilliant event with two excellent title fights.
In the co-main event, welterweight champion Robbie Lawler took on the enigmatic Rory MacDonald. Lawler, who has a diverse striking attack and an almost peerless cage savvy, was able to batter MacDonald for much of the fight. While the Canadian nearly took the win in the third round after staggering the champ with a head kick, Lawler regained his composure, worked his way through the fourth round and made MacDonald crumble with a clean punch to the nose. Watch the highlights here:
In the main event, ConorMcGregor maintained his top contender spot by knocking out Chad Mendes. You can check out the full fight video highlights here:
In the early goings of the bout, McGregor landed several body kicks that visibly knocked the stamina out of Mendes. Mendes was breathing heavily after just a couple of minutes, but he mustered up takedown attempt after takedown attempt.
For a time, it seemed as though the NCAA wrestler would be able to enjoy victory without much difficulty. Mendes, however, would flub a guillotine choke attempt, allowing McGregor to escape. The accumulated damage from McGregor‘s body kicks slowed Mendes down in a big way, which allowed McGregor to effortlessly stalk him around the cage. McGregor would hammer him with a devastating left hand to the jaw and, at 4:57 of Round 2, got the wave out of Herb Dean.
With McGregor and featherweight champ Jose Aldo both holding UFC gold, a blockbuster title unification bout is likely going down in late 2015 or early 2016. Watch for more news on the bout as it becomes available.
LAS VEGAS — The most incredible thing on Saturday evening—and this means something because it happened after a night full of incredible things—was the way the Irish celebrated after Conor McGregor knocked out Chad Mendes in the s…
LAS VEGAS — The most incredible thing on Saturday evening—and this means something because it happened after a night full of incredible things—was the way the Irish celebrated after Conor McGregor knocked out Chad Mendes in the second round to become the UFC’s interim featherweight champion.
At first, they stayed, and that is saying something in and of itself. Typical Vegas crowds will begin filing out of the MGM Grand Garden Arena immediately upon the conclusion of an event and often even before Bruce Buffer announces the final winner.
Not this crowd. People stayed, at first in their seats, holding their Irish flags aloft in the air and singing songs. Then they moved, to the concourse and beyond, filling the depths of the MGM Grand casino with their festive sounds, stopping only to bounce up and down and throw beers and high-five.
If you aren’t familiar with the word craic, it’s an Irish way of saying you are having a good time. And the Irish, who made Las Vegas just another version of Dublin on this night, were most certainly having a good craic.
Perhaps the best craic ever.
They came across the ocean by the thousands to see McGregor, Ireland’s newest sporting hero. When I went to Dublin for my recent story about his upbringing and the city that molded him, I got the sense that those who are dedicated to him are attached beyond measure. They possess the same fervent self-belief as McGregor.
Ask any fan who made that long flight to Dublin this week who they thought would win the fight, and their answer was immediate. No hedging. They believed McGregor would win, because he believed he would win.
And because he believed he would win, they spent money and flew long flights and congregated here, in a place so different from Dublin. And then they made it their own, drowning out everyone who had the temerity not to be Irish.
McGregor’s win was the culmination of a night that could not have gone better for the UFC. It debuted a sparkling and clean new graphics package that made old productions seem as though they were dredged from the stone ages. The fights delivered, one after the other, with two legitimate contenders for Fight of the Year and one that teetered on the edge. And then came the main event, with Sinead O’Connor hauntingly singing McGregor to the Octagon and Aaron Lewis (formerly of Staind) doing the same for Mendes.
The jury is out on exactly how well Lewis performed, of course; the Irish nearly drowned him out with songs of their own. And after the fight, when McGregor collapsed to his knees and buried his face in the flag of his home country, they lifted him up by singing songs about him.
There are still questions about McGregor the fighter. Mendes was able to take him down and keep him there, which indicates that the infamous “wrestler question” surrounding McGregor has not yet been fully answered. Or, it has, but not in a way that is conclusive.
We know he can get off his back and persevere, but we also know he can be put there in the first place.
But Mendes at his best is a strong wrestler with the ability to force his will on his opponents. There are no other wrestlers of his ilk in the featherweight division. There is Frankie Edgar, of course, but he is a wrestler of a wholly different variety.
And though I have learned that it is unwise to discount Edgar, I have also learned the same about McGregor. He has been cast aside as a carnival act for his entire UFC run, as someone granted far more than he has earned because of his willingness to say things that others do not.
Some of that is true. McGregor is a favored son who is loved by the UFC brass, and that will give ammunition to those who dislike him, no matter what he does for the rest of his career.
But the fact is this: McGregor is a superb fighter. He is one of the UFC’s best, at least when he is standing. Mendes admitted at the post-fight press conference that McGregor has power in his punches. But he said the biggest problem he faced with McGregor was the Irishman’s remarkable striking accuracy.
Well, that and the trash-talking that did not stop even after McGregor was locked in the cage.
“I was hitting him with everything I had, and the guy was still running his mouth,” Mendes said with a laugh during the post-fight press conference. “I landed a giant elbow on his face, and he said, ‘Is that all you’ve got?'”
McGregor is almost without question now the UFC’s biggest star. When Aldo pulled out of this fight, the UFC could have postponed the fight entirely and saved the big-money attraction for another night. Instead, the promotion rolled the dice. In a gambling town, Dana White and Co. gambled that McGregor could do what he said he would do, thereby creating an even bigger fight when Aldo is healthy.
And in a sport where things rarely work out perfectly, the UFC’s gamble paid off. McGregor played his part before the fight, touring the world and promoting it to the nines, and then he went into the Octagon and finished the job.
And now, if you thought you were salivating over Aldo vs. McGregor the first time around? You cannot imagine what the next one will bring. McGregor will do his part once again, and the buildup will be insane, and then fight night will come around, and Vegas will be Dublin all over again.
There will be singing and drinking and dancing, and the Tricolor will be in abundance.
A fine craic, indeed.
Jeremy Botter covers mixed martial arts for Bleacher Report.
UFC 189 felt doomed for a while there on Saturday.
For hours on end, the card was defined by dreadfully boring, mid-level fighters. Sure, there were some flashes of entertainment and skill, courtesy of some slick groundwork by up-and-coming flyweight L…
UFC 189 felt doomed for a while there on Saturday.
For hours on end, the card was defined by dreadfully boring, mid-level fighters. Sure, there were some flashes of entertainment and skill, courtesy of some slick groundwork by up-and-coming flyweight Louis Smolka. By and large, however, it was average fighters putting on below-average fights.
Then came the main card. Thomas Almeida decapitated Brad Pickett with a flying knee in a scrappy affair. Gunnar Nelson made quick work of Brandon Thatch, rekindling discussion of his contender status.
Then came the top three fights on the card. The once-pristine canvas that the UFC had been using as a projector screen became a bloody mess after Jeremy Stephens’ win over Dennis Bermudez, Robbie Lawler’s title defense over Rory MacDonald and the main event bout between ConorMcGregor and Chad Mendes.
All three fights wound up being horribly, terribly colorful affairs.
While the stakes weren’t quite as high as they could have been in Stephens vs. Bermudez, it was likely the best fight on the card. Stephens is known for his ability to deliver exciting fights, and his plod-forward-and-throw-haymakers style lends itself well to getting post-fight bonus checks.
Bermudez made him pay for that aggression in the early goings, clobbering him with punches and giving him a legitimate “crimson mask” in the first round. Stephens would rally back, however, and turned the fight into an absolute slobberknocker. In the third round, he landed a picture-perfect flying knee that clocked Bermudez, and he would then pound out the victory.
Next up was the welterweight title fight, and while I’m fairly certain that lining gloves with barbed wire is illegal, every punch seemed to result in a cut.
Lawler’s lips were split wide open. MacDonald’s nose was smashed. Both men were swollen beyond recognition. The two would meet up afterward at the hospital and snapped a quick photo sporting their soon-to-be-scars.
While McGregor didn’t (literally) leave much of himself in the cage, he walked out of the cage worse for wear. Mendes repeatedly took him down and pummeled him with elbows, mashing him up and splitting his eyebrow. McGregor, however, would battle back and utilize his superior striking to earn a buzzer-beating Round 2 TKO win.
There is a lot to look forward to upon exiting this card. Here’s hoping all parties can heal up quickly.
UFC 189 got off to a slow start with lackluster preliminary bouts, but the main card came with the fire.
Brad Pickett and Thomas Almeida started the main card with a fun and competitive first round. In the second frame Almeida put a stop to the fight w…
UFC 189 got off to a slow start with lackluster preliminary bouts, but the main card came with the fire.
Brad Pickett and Thomas Almeida started the main card with a fun and competitive first round. In the second frame Almeida put a stop to the fight with a flying knee. Gunner Nelson flattened and submitted Brandon Thatch in the second fight to get back in the win column in emphatic fashion.
Dennis Bermudez and Jeremy Stephens threw leather in the next bout, which ended with Stephens landing a knee that floored Bermudez. Stephens missed weight, and therefore he was not eligible for bonuses.
Then came the title fights.
Rory MacDonald failed to capture glory as Robbie LawlerTKO’d him in the fifth and final round of an astounding welterweight war. It was a battle that will be hard to top for Fight of the Year. And in the main event, ConorMcGregor captured interim UFC gold by TKO’ing Chad Mendes at the tail end of the second frame.
With all that action, picking performance winners was going to be a challenge, but the UFC did it. Here are the winners of $50,000 in bonus money for their showings at UFC 189.
Performance of the Night—Thomas Almeida
The highly touted bantamweight prospect got off to a rough start, but he rebounded to claim a bonus.
Brad Pickett is a crafty veteran with well-rounded skills, and he gave it all to Almeida. The youngster struggled in the first round as Pickett connected time and again. Pickett dropped the Brazilian twice in the round. However, Almeida had some offense of his own as he briefly dropped Pickett as well.
In the second round, Almeida put an end to the fight. He landed a crisp straight, and then he followed it up with a flying knee that shut out the lights.
Pickett hit the canvas hard. John McCarthy was on his way to stop the fight, but Almeida had already peeled off as to not do anymore damage. Almeida is the real deal. A well-earned performance bonus.
Performance of the Night—ConorMcGregor
The new Irish interim featherweight champion of the world picked up an extra $50,000 for his showing against Chad Mendes.
The newly crowned champion had to battle through some adversity, but he landed most of the significant blows. He was taken down multiple times, ate short elbows from Mendes and still got up to finish within the first two rounds.
He answered a lot of his critics, but he still showed holes in his game. All that aside, he delivered. He talked a big game and backed it all up inside the cage. He finished Mendes with his biggest weapon – the left hand. The win sets up the biggest fight in 145-pound history between McGregor and Jose Aldo at a date to be determined.
Fight of the Night—Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald
The UFC welterweight title fight no one was talking about delivered a potential Fight of the Year contender.
Lawler and MacDonald had a measured, but excellent, first round. It was a narrow round that could have gone either way. In the second round, Lawler started to take a little bit of control. He peppered MacDonald with a crisp jab and a straight left.
MacDonald came back in the third and fourth rounds. He had Lawler badly hurt and nearly finished, but the champion showed his resolve by not buckling. MacDonald worked his way into a decisive fifth round against the champion with his excellent showing in the previous two rounds.
Just one minute into the final frame, Lawler retained. A blistering left hand landed flush on an already broken nose of MacDonald. The challenger grabbed his nose and fell to the canvas, signaling he was finished. Lawler made a mess of MacDonald’s face, and the accumulation of strikes finally made it too painful to continue for MacDonald.
It was a phenomenally technical and brutal fight. It was the perfect blend. This fight is what high-level championship fights should strive to be, and the two warriors earned their performance bonuses on Saturday evening.
It was possibly the fight of the year. Robbie Lawler defended his UFC welterweight championship against Rory MacDonald in a fantastic bout that went into the fifth round Saturday night.