The long awaited UFC 189 card is this Saturday, and though the highly anticipated main event between Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo and challener Conor McGregor has gone by the wayside, top contender Chad Mendes has stepped in on short notice to face McGregor for an “interim” title.
The co-main event is for the UFC Welterweight title as Robbie Lawler defends his belt against Rory MacDonald. The pair have met before, and Lawler edged MacDonald with a split dedicision win. MacDonald has long worn the crown of “heir-apparent” during the days when his teammate Georges St Pierre ruled the welterweight division, but the loss to Lawler set him back a few steps. Now, he claims to be more mature and he feels he is ready to take home the belt.
Another protege who lost some of his momentum after a loss is Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson, and he returns to face Brandon Thatch. Nelson lost to Rick Story in October and has been on the shelf since. Thatch is also coming off a loss as he faced former Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson, but that match was this past February and he is bouncing back on shorter notice.
At bantamweight, undefeated (18-0) Thomas Almeida welcomes veteran Brad Pickett back to the Bantamweight division after Pickett’s drop to the Flyweight class did not go as planned. Almeida turned a lot of heads in his last outing back in April when he stopped veteran Yves Jabouin.
Check out our latest video blog where we review where the odds are for the PPV portion of UFC 189.
