UFC 189 RECAP: Conor McGregor Delivers KNOCKING OUT Chad Mendes, Robbie Lawler DEFEATS Rory MacDonald Again – MMA News

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By Nathan “Diesel” Hendrickson

There were two big fights that everyone was looking forward to last night at UFC 189. The first headline fight was Rory MacDonald vs. Robbie Lawler for the Welterweight belt. This was MacDonald and Lawler’s second fight. The first time around Lawler beat MacDonald. However, the conventional wisdom was that George St. Pierre protégé MacDonald was peaking and that Lawler just might lose his belt. Although most media reports described the fight as a barn burner, it wasn’t, at least not at first.

The first round consisted of both fighters pawing at each other the whole round. No joke. The crowd was booing.

The second round was slow-paced at first, but then both fighters started actually exchanging punches. Lawler hit MacDonald with a very lucky punch that must have absolutely crushed his nose, which would have a great effect later.

In round 3, Lawler kept up the pressure and MacDonald’s face started to look like hamburger, but MacDonald was still dangerous and landed a kick to Lawler’s head that staggered him. MacDonald went in for the kill with strikes. Although MacDonald tried to finish, he didn’t have the power or enough time to capitalize on hurting the champion.

In round 4, MacDonald tried to stay active and finish a hurt Lawler, but I suspect that his hamburger face and his crushed nose started to affect him. Lawler was able to hold his own and land the occasional shots to MacDonald’s increasingly grisly face.

In round 5, Lawler seemed revitalized, and MacDonald just looked all beat up in the face. Lawler started exchanging with MacDonald to increasing gore. Finally Lawler landed a left hand on what was left of MacDonald’s nose that sent him down to the mat. Referee Big John McCarthy stopped the fight. There were reports that afterwards MacDonald didn’t know what year it was, and grisly photos of MacDonald’s face went viral.

In the main event of the night, Conor McGregor and Chad Mendes fought for the interim featherweight title because supposed “true” champion Jose Aldo has a bad habit of pulling out of fights.

In Round 1, McGregor came out spinning and flying with wild strikes only to be taken down by Mendes. McGregor gets back up and they exchange strikes, but Mendes takes McGregor down again near the end of the round. I can see a chink in McGregor’s armor. While McGregor was down on the ground, he didn’t have any effective defense against Mendes.

In Round 2, Mendes takes McGregor down. This time Mendes’ ground and pound starts to get through. McGregor has no real defense. The fans get nervous, and somewhere Dana White must be contemplating the person whom he has given so much media time actually losing. After several minutes of getting dominated, McGregor finally manages to get up and unleash a flurry of strikes against a winded Mendes. Thankfully for all of the fans and for UFC president Dana White, referee Herb Dean stops the fight after just a few shots from McGregor with 3 seconds left in the round. McGregor is the new interim featherweight champion.

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