Last night at UFC 189 Conor McGregor was crowned the interim-featherweight champion after he emphatically beat Chad Mendes by TKO at the end of the second round.
McGregor not only silenced some of his critics by beating the wrestler, but also set up possibly the biggest fight in UFC history. The Irishman was originally slated to face champ Jose Aldo, but the Brazilian contraversially pulled out of the fight just a couple of weeks ago. This was following on from the marketing, world media tour, TV appearances and the promise of a mouth-watering contest.
We all knew that if McGregor won last night then the Aldo fight was a certainty. The Irish Independent revealed earlier today that the UFC has the MGM in Vegas reserved for January 2nd and will probably have the unification title fight take place then.
Lorenzo Fertitta said the fight would “probably” take place on January 2nd “but that it is not set in stone. We have MGM reserved on January 2.”
Alan’s Angle: There are rumours going around that McGregor has a knee injury that could rule him out for a while, but I must stress they are just rumours at this point. The end of year show for the UFC is always a big deal. In the past they’ve had Jones vs. DC, Weidman vs. Silva II, JDS vs. Velasquez II, Lesnar vs. Overeem etc., so a McGregor vs. Aldo fight would fit in nicely with that trend, should both fighters be fit to compete.