McGregor-Aldo showdown in UFC 194 fight night

Gareth A Davies will be here from 3am (GMT) on Sunday morning will all the news and action live and direct from Las Vegas, in the meantime here’s his preview to the big fight…

After the bout – which headlined UFC 194 inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena, drew an attendance of 16,516 and U.S.-record gate revenue of $10.1 million – McGregor expressed sympathy for Aldo regarding the brevity of the fight, but insisted his victory was all but inevitable. After the fight, McGregor jumped the fence and confronted Aldo, who was observing the fight from the front row.

Both fighters tipped the scales at exactly 145 pounds Friday, finally making one of the most promoted fights in UFC history official. With that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if he also moves up because he cuts a lot of weight and because his teammate, Renan Barao, is supposedly moving up to featherweight in his next outing.

A moment of tension that briefly looked like it may escalate was quickly defused, as Aldo and McGregor faced off for what was the 10th time in 2015.

“I don’t care what people don’t think”.

Aldo, who had made six successful defenses of his title, was devastated by the loss.

The UFC is coming off what was likely the biggest upset in the organization’s history – and possibly one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports – when Holly Holm knocked off undefeated champion Ronda Rousey. I said I would slip.

“I feel for Jose, he’s a phenomenal champion – he was a phenomenal champion”. And when Aldo surged forward and started to unleash a left of his own, the Irishman already had one on the way while he was moving backward.

This had left a bad taste in “The Notorious'” mouth, who later revealed that he too was fighting with a torn ACL when he faced replacement Chad Mendes during the said event. “I wasn’t considering leaving the featherweight division for good because I’m the unified world champion”.

Meanwhile in the co-feature bout of the evening, Chris Weidman look to defend his title Luke Rockhold. “But I still feel, at the end of the day, that precision beats power and timing beats speed all the day of the week”.

Aldo and McGregor were initially set to face off at UFC 189, but the Brazilian pulled out with just a few weeks to go due to an injury suffered in training camp.

Rockhold has stopped his last five opponents. That’d be my preference, but I don’t know how that’s going to work out. He seized control of the fight when Weidman attempted to throw a wheel kick in the third round.

Weidman took the belt from long-reigning champ Anderson Silva, then solidified his hold on it with a win in the rematch.

Yoel Romero won an entertaining split decision over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in a meeting of middleweight contenders.