It’s a pretty big deal you know. That’s if you haven’t already figured.
All attention is on UFC 189 this weekend for one of mixed martial arts’ biggest ever occasions.
The brash Irish phenomenon Conor McGregor steps up for the biggest fight of his career, and whether it is UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo, or late replacement Chad Mendes entering the lion’s den on July 11, McGregor simply doesn’t care.
“They’re all the same,” said a half-asleep McGregor (17-2) when coach John Kavanagh broke the news of Aldo’s rib injury.
When you look at the fight, it becomes hugely paradoxical that the entity that once fuelled this fight, the UFC featherweight title, has become irrelevantly lost in the shuffle of one man’s meteoric rise as the sport’s most polarising figures.
Despite this, he is the overriding justification of why being a fighter is so much more than flash knockouts, and technical superiority.
There is a lot of overwhelming criticism of ‘riding the McGregor hype train’ and maybe a few fights ago, that would stand true.
However, every single time he has stepped into the Octagon; each time facing tougher and more resilient challenges, he continued to come out on top, more emphatically every instant.
On Saturday night at UFC 189, Mendes (17-2) isn’t just facing an opponent, he must confront a hyperbole which has become a figment of reality.
‘Money’ Mendes’s technical ability has never been in doubt. The 30 year-old American has a collegiate NCAA Division I Wrestling background, and trains with some of the best fighters in the world at Team Alpha Male; including UFC Bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw.
The question has been there since day one; how will McGregor deal with a wrestler? It is the one uncertainty that has haunted the Irishman since stepping into the Octagon in 2013.
Saturday night will be about whether or not Conor can answer the question, but to do so, he must conquer arguably one of the most relentless and experienced wrestlers the promotion has to offer.
Mendes took the Brazilian champion to the limit at UFC 179, in what many consider the toughest fight of Aldo’s career. ‘Junior’ took more visible damage in that one fight against Mendes than it seemed he had in all of his previous bouts.
The #1 ranked UFC 145lber is not just a gritty wrestler, though. His hands are akin to granite and if you look back at some of his finishes over Cody McKenzie, Clay Guida and Ricardo Lamas it’s understandable that the fight is much more 50/50 than speculated.
Conor’s supercilious behaviour has almost single handedly promoted the main event. But now, it’s about so much more than just a fight.
The dust has almost settled, Las Vegas is filled with anxious excitement, on behalf of McGregor’s Ireland and the UFC; who have invested an unprecedented amount of promotion into UFC 189.
A nation waits with aching patience, as one man tries to write history.
For McGregor, the destined bout with Aldo still lay in wait, as well as a potential follow up title defence at 82,300 capacity Croke Park.
The McGregor era is in full swing, breaking records is becoming a regularity, but Saturday night will cement whether or not the bubble can withstand a bullet.
