LAS VEGAS – It’s been a rough last few weeks for the UFC.
New York legislators approved Chicken Wing Day last month, but couldn’t find the votes to legalize mixed martial arts before the session ended.
Yoel Romero stopped Lyoto Machida in a career-defining performance June 27 and then abruptly killed any momentum he got from a brilliant effort with a bizarre post-fight interview in which he appeared to speak out against gay marriage.
The June 30 unveiling of the uniforms all UFC fighters are required to wear occurred in New York, and the two overriding thoughts were they are extremely ugly and extraordinarily expensive.
Featherweight champion Jose Aldo injured his ribs in training and got into something of a dispute with his bosses when he insisted the ribs were broken and they said they were bruised.
Either way, Aldo ultimately decided on June 30 he couldn’t fight at the level he wanted to against archrival Conor McGregor and withdrew from the heavily hyped featherweight title match that was to headline UFC 189 at the MGM Grand Garden.
And then on Monday, jaws dropped when the company announced that lightweight Gilbert Melendez, of all people, tested positive for steroids – yes, testosterone is a steroid – following his bout in Mexico City last month against Eddie Alvarez.
The outspoken McGregor has a chance to undo a lot of that damage Saturday when he faces Chad Mendes for the interim featherweight title.
McGregor has quickly risen to star status and the UFC would love nothing more than for him to take care of Mendes and then move into a champion vs. champion bout against Aldo.
In some ways, that would make an Aldo-McGregor bout even bigger than it would have been had it occurred Saturday as scheduled. UFC president Dana White said repeatedly it had a chance to be the biggest pay-per-view in the company’s history, and even if it didn’t hit the lofty one million-plus level White was saying was possible, it was set up to do the best number of the year.
What’s amazing, though, is how little respect Mendes seems to be getting. This is a guy who is 17-2 and whose only losses were to Aldo. Many regarded the second of those losses, a decision at UFC 179 last year in Aldo’s home country of Brazil, as the 2014 Fight of the Year.
Throw out the losses to Aldo, who is one of the greatest fighters in the sport’s history, and Mendes would not only be near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, but he would be getting considerably more attention.
This, though, is the McGregor show, and it’s likely that UFC management made the bout with Mendes for the interim title so it could easily remain the main event. If it weren’t for a belt, it would have been difficult to explain how McGregor-Mendes got top billing over the welterweight title fight between champion Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald.
While McGregor-Mendes really is nothing more than a glorified No. 1 contender’s fight, the interim title will immeasurably boost the stature and marketability of the next bout if McGregor comes out on top.
If Mendes wins, it’s unlikely a third bout would captivate the public the way a match between Aldo and McGregor would, despite the entertaining nature of the bout at UFC 179.
The UFC would also, in the event of a Mendes victory, have a difficult time making former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar wait even longer for another shot at Aldo. Giving Mendes a third crack at Aldo before Edgar got a second would hardly seem fair, particularly because Edgar has come the closest to anyone in the last 10 years of actually beating Aldo.
Aldo beat Mendes for the first time at UFC 142 on Jan. 14, 2012. He next defended the title at UFC 156 on Feb. 2, 2013, when he slipped past Edgar. After wins over Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas, Aldo came back on Oct. 25, 2014, to beat Mendes a second time.
While a Mendes win wouldn’t be disastrous for the UFC, it wouldn’t be nearly as profitable for the company as a McGregor win would be.
Still, Mendes’ history suggests he’s got a great shot to win the fight and scuttle a lot of plans.
McGregor has repeatedly mocked the 5-foot-6 Mendes for being short, but his height won’t matter if he takes McGregor down and is dropping elbows from the top position.
“Conor's never faced anyone like me before,” Mendes said. “I have the athleticism, the strength, the power, the speed and I have wrestling to put him on his back and finish this fight. This fight is mine.”
It’s not a leap to suggest that Mendes will win. McGregor, who is significantly bigger than Mendes, has said he’ll have to cut more than 25 pounds to reach the featherweight division’s championship limit of 145 pounds.
Though McGregor has been in camp longer than Mendes, Mendes is never away from the gym for long and that weight cut has to have some kind of impact on McGregor. No one has been able to take advantage of it so far, but neither has McGregor faced a top-shelf wrestler like Mendes.
Though they’ll never admit it, UFC officials have to hope that McGregor comes out on top to set up the huge money showdown with Aldo.
If Mendes scrambles those plans, it will simply be the continuation of another horrible two weeks for the UFC.
