JOSE ALDO, UFC lightweight champion and No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, pulled out of his highly anticipated clash with undefeated Irishman Connor McGregor on Saturday at UFC 189 because of a fractured rib he suffered during training.
Personally, I was looking forward to seeing these two go at it after all the hype generated mostly by McGregor in an effort to get under Aldo’s skin. McGregor has a history of selling and marketing his fights by antagonizing and taunting his opponent.
The UFC has chosen lightweight contender Chad Mendes to replace Aldo on 11 days’ notice. I don’t know how you can formulate a strategy in beating an unorthodox fighter like McGregor on 11 days notice.
According to Owen Roddy (who has trained McGregor for 10 years) on the MMA Junkie web site, “Mendes has a powerful overhand right, and that’s really it,” he said. “For me, I just don’t think he’s going to be able to get close to Conor. Not only does Conor have very long arms, but he fights at range, where he bounces in and out, so I think Mendes will have a hard time closing the distance.
“I think maybe the first or second round. In a 25-minute fight, the odds of you being hit in the face are very high, especially against [McGregor]. Once [Mendes] does that, the end is near then. It’s a matter of how long Mendes can stay in there, but nobody can take a beating from Conor for 25 minutes.”
If I were Roddy and McGregor, I wouldn’t underestimate Mendes and look past him. Always respect your opponent no matter what sport and what league you’re in. Never take your opponent for granted. Mendes hopes McGregor does.
To sell and market his fight, here’s what McGregor had to say about his new opponent, “I think Chad is a substitute,” McGregor said on Wednesday on a media conference call. “A B-level [fighter]. I think he’s a wrestler with an overhand who gasses. I think his body weight to his height, his body is in disproportion, and I think that hampers him as a fighter. I think that’s why he gasses and he gets that tired.
“That’s why when I’m pressing him and I’m pressing him, I’m having these exchanges and these scrambles, his belly is going to be breathing in and his body is going to be screaming for oxygen and I’m going to still be there in his face, cracking him with everything that I have. Every shot; the heel, the knee, the elbow, the fist, every shot in the book I have. And that will be that. Eventually he will give, like they all do.”
Mendes threw everything including the kitchen sink at Aldo in the two occasions they fought. The winner of the fight becomes the interim featherweight champion and the one most likely to challenge Aldo for all of the UFC Featherweight’s marbles.
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MANNY PACQUIAO’S first fight after suffering a torn rotator might be against light-welterweight/welterweight contender Lucas Martin Matthysse of Argentina. Matthysse is coming off a victory against former Pacquiao sparring partner, Ruslan Provodnikov, in an action-packed, knockdown drag out affair.
Unlike Floyd Mayweather Jr., Matthysse will not run and dance and instead engage Pacquiao. Matthysse stays in the pocket and keeps coming and coming. He has power in both hands as evidenced by his 34 knockouts in his 37 fights as a professional. The fight will reportedly happen in the first quarter of 2016. Other possible fighters being considered are Kell Brook, Terrence Crawford, Canelo Alvarez, Jessie Vargas and Juan Manuel Marquez.
1 comment
To test Manny Pacquiao if he is still a contender or already an afterthought,
,he should fight IBF Welterweight title holder Kell Brook not Lucas Matthysse. I read that the Pacman’s dream is to fight at the O2 Area in London. This is the redemption fight that MP needs.