Following last night’s fight between McGregor & Mendes, it seems the predictions that McGregor’s takedown defence was weak were true.
Despite this, McGregor came out on top by the end of the fight’s 2 rounds.
Round by Round Summary
Round 1
The first five minutes went well for NCAA Wrestler Mendes - he started strong and defended well. However, McGregor’s body work did a good job of slowing the powerful Mendes down. Ultimately Mendes landed a heavy punch causing a gash just above McGregor’s eye and round 1 ended with a chance in Mendes’ favour.
Round 2
Mendes demonstrated his prowess as a ground fighter and took McGregor to the floor. However by this time Mendes was also tiring. He (Mendes) continued to attack on the ground and landed some very heavy elbow shots but McGregor returned to his feet and rushed Mendes against the cage with a flurry of strikes which damaged Mendes’ pace, leaving him more open.
Mendes | Fight Stats UFC189 | McGregor |
71 | Strikes Thrown | 127 |
42 | Strikes Landed | 30 |
4 | Takedowns | 0 |
0 | Takedowns Defended | 2 |
*Stats via: http://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-189-mendes-vs-mcgregor-full-results-and-live-fight-analytics
Finally McGregor threw a snappy left to the chin-shaking Mendes so that his legs gave way; whilst Mendes was on the floor McGregor hurled more shots.
Just shy of the end of the 2nd round, the referee stopped the fight and McGregor became the Interim Featherweight holder.
MrGregor Has Legitimated Title Shot
It is true to say that Mendes stepped up to fight this match just two weeks before UFC 189. He was possibly ill prepared and maybe not even fit enough for the battle.
Nevertheless, last night’s fight has shut down the talk that MrGregor had been gifted the title shot by being able to avoid ground fighters.
Many people believe he is likely to fight Aldo next for the Featherweight Title.