Sit back, relax and soak it all in once again. No one is likely to forget that win over Jose Aldo any time soon but, in reality, it was almost an anticlimax when you put it up against the war that was McGregor vs Mendes.
The Dubliner's legion of fans couldn't have wished for a better outcome but, for neutral's, it's easy to see why many may have felt robbed by that 13 second victory. The best vs the best had been expected but instead we saw the kind of domination that no one should have predicted.
Obviously that's not the way to look at it but in hindsight, it's fair to say that UFC 189 was really the fight that put McGregor where he is right now. He could stay away from Aldo's strikes and use his reach to inflict damage but put him up against a wrestler like Chad Mendes and it could all come tumbling down quite literally if Mendes was able to take the fight to the mat.
A lot has been said about that fight back in July and now you have the chance to watch it all over again with the UFC having added it as a free fight on their YouTube channel in the build up to UFC 196 and that fight against Rafael dos Anjos.
Mendes' ability to really bring the best out of McGregor, the defence on the ground and finally that punishing finish, if that's not worth 18 minutes of your time then we're not sure what is. (Continued below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P150hc90Aj0
And just in case you haven't seen enough of Rafael dos Anjos in the past couple of weeks, then his full bout against Anthony Pettis has also been added to YouTube. Five rounds worth of punishing action and the night that Dos Anjos emerged as the real deal in terms of becoming one of the UFC's very best.
Soak it in because we're going to be seeing a lot of it in the coming weeks. March 5th is less than three weeks away, and things are getting serious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HX2kPa4_9g
