McGregor seeks to destroy Aldo in awaited UFC194 encounter
Published:
Lee Gormley | December 9, 2015
Conor McGregor v Jose Aldo
- UFC featherweight title fight
- Sunday, December 13th
- Scheduled for: 04:00 GMT
- MGM Grand, Las Vegas
- Live on BT Sport 2
McGregor gunning for early stoppage
“One round. Four minutes. I’ll KO him,” was the blunt prediction from a typically modest Conor McGregor, ahead of his long-awaited UFC featherweight title match-up with dominant world champion and pound-for-pound number one Jose Aldo at UFC194 this weekend in Las Vegas.
McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) enters the MGM Grand octagon as the main attraction, with his exuberant exploits towards his Brazilian opponent having generated a mass following for this featherweight title showdown, while Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) has, mostly, remained his calm, composed self.
The Irishman has emerged as one of the most amusing and entertaining athletes in the sporting world in these past 18 momentous months, as he continues to back-up his trash-talk and confident fight predictions in the octagon, making him 7/2 with Coral to inflict an envisioned first-round knockout on Aldo.
“I can smell the lack of confidence [on Aldo]. If the mind is not in it, the body won’t follow. I still don’t think he will show,” stated ‘the Notorious. “I am trying to be optimistic but I am never wrong, I always predict the outcome of my fights and I am never wrong.”
Healed Aldo ready for battle
McGregor was supposed to have collided with Aldo in July, but the latter withdrew just days before due to an apparent rib injury, with the Dubliner then stopping grappler Chad Mendes instead for the interim featherweight belt. But the 29-year-old world champion had declared himself fully fit for UFC194, where he is a possibly surprising 11/10 underdog.
“Yeah, I’m 100 per cent since the last fight. I’m healed up,” stated Aldo, who is 7/2 to KO McGregor.
“It really doesn’t matter to me who underestimates me. I train for myself, I fight for myself, so whatever he thinks or anyone else doesn’t matter at all to me. I’m going to go in there and win, which is what I always do.”
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt, known as ‘Scarface’, has every reason to be optimistic, despite his opponent’s rise to prominence, having been the only ever UFC champion at 145-pounds and gone undefeated for a decade. Although, McGregor has knocked out all of Dustin Poirier, Dennis Siver and Mendes within two rounds since Aldo last took to the octagon for his previous fight, though it’s something that doesn’t bother the world title-holder.
“I think the reason that I don’t fight as often is because I’m involved in big fights, so this is another chance for the fans that don’t know me to be able to watch and get to know my work,” added the 29-year-old.
McGregor has “lost his mind”
The momentum is seemingly with the 27-year-old Irishman going into the biggest featherweight match-up in history, with McGregor seeing himself as the dominant fighting force and UFC’s most bankable star, an outlook that he says has made him lose his mind in true Vincent Van Gogh style.
“I’m so lost in it that I can’t imagine anything else. Like Vincent Van Gogh. He lost his mind in his game. I have lost my mind also. But I am happy with that,” continued McGregor, who is evens to stop Aldo.
“I feel to reach the high pinnacle in anything you do, you must almost become insane to what you are doing. I can’t imagine anything else.”
Dublin’s deadly export will look to end Aldo’s reign as featherweight champion in typically devastating fashion during the early hours of Sunday morning, as he aims to complete his rise to UFC supremacy in his adopted stomping ground of Las Vegas and prove another prediction right.
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Coral’s top tip: Conor McGregor has been spot on in his own fight predictions to date and, if he says he will KO Jose Aldo within the opening round, who are we to doubt him? So back ‘Mystic Mac’ to be correct again at 7/2.
