Mendes gives edge to Aldo in bout against McGregor
Perhaps the man best qualified to analyze Saturday’s UFC 194 main event also will be the one most interested in the outcome.
Chad Mendes will meet Frankie Edgar tonight in the main event of “The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale” at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the second of three Ultimate Fighting Championship cards in three days in Las Vegas.
Mendes was knocked out by Jose Aldo in 2012 and dropped a unanimous decision to the champ in 2014. He also stepped in for an injured Aldo to fight Conor McGregor in July only to lose the interim title bout by second-round knockout.
Those are the only three losses of his career.
Mendes gives a slight edge to Aldo in the featherweight unification title bout against McGregor on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.
“I think both these guys can cause some issues for each other,” Mendes said. “I mean, Conor has his long reach, he’s southpaw, he uses pressure well. Aldo’s very explosive, and he’s dangerous on the feet everywhere. The one thing I see Aldo having over Conor is the ground game. We’ll see what happens mentally when both guys get in there. This is a fight I’m really excited for.
“Getting in there and fighting against both of these guys, I felt their mental and their physical, and it’s going to be an exciting fight.”
Mendes has a big fight of his own to worry about first. The winner of tonight’s bout is likely next in line to fight for the title, though Aldo and McGregor very well could be in line for a rematch first.
Mendes doesn’t have a preference for which opponent he would prefer to challenge for the title.
“I basically just want to fight whoever has the belt. That strap is the ultimate goal,” he said. “I’ve been close a couple times. I’ve tasted it.”
Edgar already has been a champion in the UFC, holding the lightweight belt from 2010 to 2012. He dropped to 145 pounds after losing the belt to Benson Henderson and then falling in the rematch. Edgar also had a shot at Aldo, losing a unanimous decision in his featherweight debut in 2013.
The bout will headline an event that will air in its entirety on Fox Sports 1 at 5 p.m.
Lightweight Artem Lobov, a training partner of McGregor, will fight Ryan Hall for the “TUF” season title. Also, Edson Barbosa will meet Tony Ferguson in a matchup of lightweight contenders.
• WHITE EYES UFC 200 FOR HOLM-ROUSEY — UFC president Dana White indicated he hopes to schedule a rematch between Ronda Rousey and new women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm for UFC 200 on July 9 at the new Las Vegas Arena.
While there have been preliminary discussions, neither fighter has agreed to terms on the potential fight.
Holm’s camp has indicated a desire to fight before that date, against top contender Miesha Tate if Rousey isn’t ready. White, however, shot down that request.
“It’s Rousey,” he said of whom Holm will fight next. “That’s the fight to make.”
Rousey suffered a shocking loss in the main event of UFC 193 on Nov. 14 in Melbourne, Australia, when Holm knocked her out in the second round.
White, who said he has talked to Rousey “seven times a day” since her loss, said he thinks the former Olympian will bounce back from the first loss of her mixed martial arts career.
“Here’s the thing,” White said. “Ronda lost judo matches, but she’s never lost a fight. Even in street fights, she’d kick everyone’s ass. This is her first real loss. She’ll overcome it, and she’ll be back. I think what happened was Ronda got in a situation she’d never been in before. She got clipped, and she’d never been there before. But she stayed in there, man. She tried to fight through it. She told me that when she was in there, she was rocked and she’d never been rocked like that and the things that were going on in her head and what she was doing, she’d never been in that situation.”
• ROCKHOLD: WEIDMAN CAMP ‘JABRONIS’ — Saturday’s middleweight title bout between Luke Rockhold and champion Chris Weidman has been lost in the shuffle as part of a card topped by McGregor and Aldo.
Weidman and Rockhold also have been quite respectful of each other, which doesn’t help generate many headlines.
Rockhold did decide to get one good shot in at the champion during Thursday’s open workouts at the MGM Grand, the final media appearance before the fight, though it was tame by trash-talking standards.
The challenger declared his American Kickboxing Academy camp to be superior to Weidman’s Serra-Longo Fight Team.
“He trains with a bunch of jabronis,” Rockhold said. “I train with champions.”
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj
