Jeff-
Well…. this wasn’t the fight we were expecting.. thanks to Jose Aldo and his “injury” but nonetheless it was a good matchup heading into the fight. Chad Mendes had a definite disadvantage in size standing 3 inches shorter with an 8 inch shorter reach. However, Mendes is no slouch, boasting a 17-2 record entering the fight (same as McGregor).
Going into the fight I was pretty confident McGregor would dominate the fight and end it fairly early as well (my prediction was a TKO in the 2nd round).
Mendes is the more technical guy and was a standout college wrestler, while McGregor is just a straight up knockout machine. It had the makings of a good battle.
McGregor came out firing but couldn’t seem to land anything and had trouble with his footing. He seemed to put himself in a few dangerous positions right off the bat by trying to land the big blows with no setup.
After about 2 minutes, McGregor had landed a few decent kicks to the abdomen of Mendes and Chad was clearly hurting and breathing heavy already.
Surprisingly the first one to show blood was McGregor, just above the right eye but Mendes was still the one showing the most wear and was nursing his abdomen area.
Mendes got McGregor on the ground a few times in the first round and really seemed to be in good position but couldn’t capitalize on the advantage, other than the one elbow that busted Conor’s right eye.
Early in the 2nd, the wrestling background of Mendes really gave McGregor problems (something he hasn’t really faced yet). Mendes once again found himself on top with good position. About half way through the round Mendes put his head down and McGregor reeled off about 7 straight elbows to the crown of Mendes’ head. Mendes took offense to it and looked for an illegal elbow call, but to no avail.
After 4 minutes on the ground Mendes finally went for the choke hold, McGregor worked his way out of it, got to his feet and decided to end things right then and there by just dropping Mendes with a huge left hand and pummeling him until the ref had to call for the match.
Earlier in the day I called for Conor to end the match in the 2nd and with only a few seconds left in the fight Conor pulled through for me. If I was a betting man I would’ve been sitting pretty tonight.
Conor McGregor has a lot of naysayers but hopefully this fight put people on notice that he can handle himself against all different types of fighters, and on short notice at that.
After the fight, in typical Conor fashion, he called out Jose Aldo with this gem “I had injuries worse than what he claimed he had, he can run all he wants, but I guarantee his day will come”. You better believe if McGregor gets his way, he will have Aldo in a place where he can no longer duck him and I fully expect Conor to bring the entire wrath of Ireland with him.
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