UFC 189: McGregor vs Mendes

[jimufctna24]

I understand Herbie is not fibbing. I think it is important to establish that before I go on. But, if Mendes is in, I don't understand the UFC's logic. 

 

Whichever way you cut it, pulling Aldo out on short notice is going to piss people off. I suspect most order PPV on the day of the fight, or if not, the day before. So keeping up the pretence that Aldo vs McGregor is happening will not effect PPV buys to a massive degree. Even if they do get a ton of early orders from customers under the premise that Aldo vs McGregor is happening, I am sure those customers will be thrilled when the fight they paid to see doesn't happen. 

 

The notion put forward by Chael Sonner that McGregor has to fight because the "Irish are coming", is not applicable to the pretence. Surely the Irish who have booked their hotels and tickets, would still travel over for McGregor vs Mendes. Even if not, a slight hit at the gate is more preferable than the P.R damage it is going to cause if they announce that Aldo is out at the last minute.

 

Lamby makes a good point as well. Keeping up the pretence hinders any attempt to drum interest into McGregor vs Mendes. The fact they had a TV show over the weekend, and seemingly spent it promoting a fight that they know isn't going to happen is counter-productive as fuck. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, lamby raises a good point there. Maybe they are still fully intending to go ahead with Aldo vs McGregor because surely if Mendes was stepping in they'd want to get the ball rolling promoting that ASAP. If they leave it until fight week and then announce it's McGregor vs Mendes then not only will people be pissed off, it could hurt the PPV buys more.

 

At least if they announced it now they'd have a bit of time to try and win people around and make them want to see the Mendes fight. It's not like McGregor vs Mendes would be hard to sell either. Fuck, within a two minute bit on Beyond The Octagon where McGregor threatened to rest his balls on Mendes' forehead, I wanted to see them fight. It'd be a blow losing Aldo, but a couple of Embeddeds, a conference call and a press conference with McGregor and Mendes would be all it takes to get a lot of the pissed off people back on board.

 

Fuck knows. Maybe they are still forcing ahead with the Aldo fight. I can see Aldo wanting to carry on, just for the financial benefits this fight brings. And you know even if he loses he'll be getting a big immediate rematch which just means two massive paydays and another huge PPV fight with McGregor. Even with the bad ribs, you can see why Aldo would think it's worth the risk rather than pulling out and taking the chance where McGregor might lose and then Aldo misses out on that big money fight.

 

My mate's brother is a huge McGregor fan and he's actually trying to say Aldo's faking the injury and hoping that Mendes beats McGregor so he doesn't have to fight him. Bonkers.

 

1) Aldo faking an injury to get out of fighting someone sounds hilarious to me. Aldo's not scared of anyone.

 

2) This is Aldo's chance to finally make that big money. Nobody will be more gutted than him if he has to pull out of this fight. And if Mendes ends up fighting McGregor you can bet Aldo will be praying McGregor wins. It's the biggest fight out there for him and Mendes killing it effectively takes millions of potential dollars out of Aldo's bank account. Why the fuck would he fake an injury to get out of that? Even if you say 'because he's scared of losing to McGregor' - I'm not buying it because, like I said above, even if he does lose to McGregor, then he'll more than likely get an immediate rematch on the December PPV or something.

 

He can't lose even if he does lose. Either;

 

A) he soldiers on and fights McGregor in two weeks, makes big money, wins and can brag that he beat McGregor with a rib injury.

 

B) he soldiers on and fights McGregor in two weeks, makes big money, loses and has the built-in excuse, gets an immediate rematch and makes even more money.

 

The other option;

 

C) he pulls out and then has to rely on McGregor beating Mendes. If he does then great, the Aldo vs McGregor show is back on. But if he loses, Conor might never get back in the position he's in now and Aldo loses BIG.

 

So yeah, if I was Aldo and the doctors gave me the all clear, I'd definitely fight. The risk is certainly worth the reward in this case.

[herbie747]

I understand Herbie is not fibbing. I think it is important to establish that before I go on. But, if Mendes is in, I don't understand the UFC's logic. 

 

 

 

I'm not lying about what I was told - but that certainly doesn't make it true. Let's make sure that's clear too!

[Chunk]

Where would UFC stand legally if they were covering up the fact that Aldo is already definitely out? Feels like the sort of thing that should be highly illegal, but I can't think of a specific law they're breaking.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think they're being genuine. Perhaps they have a better feel / more info on the chance of it happening than we do, but the basic concept of: carry on as planned and hope Aldo is fit in time, if not then do Mendes / Mcgregor feels like it could be legit. The risk of covering it up and the questionable gain they'd get by doing so just doesn't seem worthwhile.

 

That being said, that scrum with Conor shows just how much it's affected him. You can tell he's gutted. Proper taken the wind out of his sails.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah if Mendes is stepping in, it's really fucked Conor over.

 

Imagine spending an entire camp prepping for a standup war with one of the best strikers in MMA. Spending money on sparring partners tailored to mimicking Aldo's style etc. Then two weeks out your whole training camp is flipped on its head and you're given one of the best wrestlers in the division?

 

If it's Mendes vs McGregor it'll give us some idea on McGregor's wrestling but it's not going to give us the clearest picture. It sounds like I'm getting my excuses in early for McGregor but I'm not. I've always said I'd pick Mendes and Edgar to beat him. But it's a fact that he won't be fully prepared for Mendes when he's spent an entire camp training for Aldo. It's a completely different fight entirely.

 

For Mendes, he'd be taking it on short notice which obviously isn't ideal, but wrestling is his background. It's second nature to him. He won't be as sharp as if he had a full camp but it's still an advantage. The main thing for Mendes would be conditioning, I imagine. How good shape was he in when he got the call and is he up for a good five rounds.

 

If Mendes steps in and McGregor still beats him that's very encouraging. Especially if he's able to show he has some answer for the wrestling. Even if people try to put it down to Mendes coming in on short notice, it'll at least show McGregor has the techniques to at least try to deal with a good wrestler. The way some people talk it's like they're expecting a Kimbo level of takedown/grappling defence from him.

 

This two weeks is going to drag like fuck. We should all be mega excited now but this 'will they/won't they?' shit has put a right dampner on the whole thing. That's another reason stringing us along about Aldo (if they are doing that) is stupid. All it's done is keep everyone in the dark and put a grey cloud over what should be the best bit of the build-up.

[lambyUK]

I also wouldn't be surprised if Mendes has stayed in fighting shape knowing this massive fight was on the horizon with Aldo's injury history. I bet the sneaky fucker has been in camp for 8 weeks. 

[waters44]

Yeah and im sure Mendes was hitting the gym hard once that confusion over Aldo's drug test came into the public eye - when was that, a couple of weeks before the rib injury? So potentially Mendes has been training hard for a bit longer then we think. Who knows.

[David]

I've been one of the people who questions McGregor's ability to deal with a top level wrestler, but even I would say that him losing to Mendes wouldn't answer my question, not on such short notice.

 

Give him a three month camp, a chance to work with other high level grapplers on an exclusive basis. Surely that's the least he could expect?

 

I actually think that the UFC are shafting McGregor here. The guy puts in the legwork to generate buys that will benefit the company, making a bunch of guys in suits a lot of money and they hit him with this shite? Mendes is a completely different proposition to Aldo.

 

The best solution would be to postpone the fight for a few months. Both guys still get their payday, both guys still get the fight they've been training for.

 

If McGregor simply has to fight on that date at least give him someone who'll fight in a similar way. Nate Diaz would be ideal, or even Cub Swanson.

 

It's weird, because I felt that McGregor should have faced someone like Mendes before getting the title shot, but to throw him in there at such short notice simply isn't fair in my book, and with McGregor being so new to the company the chances of him using his clout and saying no are very slim unfortunately.

 

The whole situation is shite. We either get Aldo with busted ribs and a shadow of his usual self, or we get McGregor getting shafted and most likely losing against Mendes.

[lambyUK]

I agree with you David, but I think you're also underestimating just how much grappling preparation Mcgregor has put into his current camp, and also his training in general. I know he trains massively with Gunnar Nelson who's an elite grappler. During numerous interviews Mcgregor has also talked about working heavily on his wrestling and even mentioned about him drafting in wrestling partners for this camp before the injury news broke. 

Who knows, perhaps he's prepared, in the same way as Mendes may have done, for a different opponent with Aldo's history. As with videos posted in this thread, he even predicted Aldo's drop out. 

 

With everything you've written, and if this Mendes fight goes ahead, it will be just as fascinating in a very different way to the Aldo fight. 

[Chunk]

I've been one of the people who questions McGregor's ability to deal with a top level wrestler, but even I would say that him losing to Mendes wouldn't answer my question, not on such short notice.

 

Give him a three month camp, a chance to work with other high level grapplers on an exclusive basis. Surely that's the least he could expect?

 

I actually think that the UFC are shafting McGregor here. The guy puts in the legwork to generate buys that will benefit the company, making a bunch of guys in suits a lot of money and they hit him with this shite? Mendes is a completely different proposition to Aldo.

 

The best solution would be to postpone the fight for a few months. Both guys still get their payday, both guys still get the fight they've been training for.

 

If McGregor simply has to fight on that date at least give him someone who'll fight in a similar way. Nate Diaz would be ideal, or even Cub Swanson.

 

It's weird, because I felt that McGregor should have faced someone like Mendes before getting the title shot, but to throw him in there at such short notice simply isn't fair in my book, and with McGregor being so new to the company the chances of him using his clout and saying no are very slim unfortunately.

 

The whole situation is shite. We either get Aldo with busted ribs and a shadow of his usual self, or we get McGregor getting shafted and most likely losing against Mendes.

Following a fight that could be a perfectly good replacement main event in Lawler/Rory.

[wandshogun09]

Completely forgot and haven't seen it mentioned in here yet, but they mentioned on Saturday night's Fight Night that there's going to be an Aldo vs McGregor: Bad Blood special airing soon. Anyone who saw the Jones vs Cormier one will know how brilliant it was.

 

So they're continuing to cocktease us. Maybe the fight is happening after all.

 

Can anyone remember when they said Bad Blood was going to air in America? Can't find anything about it now.

 

Edit -

 

Yet another great Aldo vs McGregor promo;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=6DUNS1B2MlM

[Egg Shen]

the fight is happening, this Mendes thing is bullshit for now. He's on stand-by,  people are looking too much into this.

 

It doesn't really serve any purpose to continue to promote McGregor/Aldo if they know it isn't happening. Ticket sales are already done, PPV sales will happen the week or the day of the event, if they drop this last minute then they are likely to experience a big fallout of PPV buys. They'd be better served to throw their whole weight behind McGregor/Mendes with the time they have left, Conor will sell that muthafucker in 2 weeks.

 

What the logic in making people believe that the McGregor/Aldo fight is still happening if it isn't?

[Chunk]

My mate's brother is a huge McGregor fan and he's actually trying to say Aldo's faking the injury and hoping that Mendes beats McGregor so he doesn't have to fight him. Bonkers.

Just for fun, here's another conspiracy theory:

 

Aldo is pissed off, the antics on the world tour have really got to him and he sees Mcgregor as fair game for some underhand tactics. So what better way to get back into the head of Mcgregor and throw him off his game in the lead up to the fight than to make him believe you're injured. Invent a fake injury, get a local doctor to confirm it and then play along with the pretense all the while training as hard as ever and knowing full well that you're good to fight. Messes up Mcgregor's head, potentially makes him consider his game plan, distracts him from training.

 

Then it spirals out of control, the UFC get a US doctor to do an examination (which obviously only finds "bruising"). They come up with the Mendes plan and we end up where we are now.

 

No?

[Egg Shen]

...and loses out on the biggest payday of his career.

[lambyUK]

...and loses out on the biggest payday of his career.

Think you mis red the post Ebb. Chunk is basically saying the possible theory is that this is all Aldo playing a game with McGregor to get into his head before fight night.