Conor McGregor Clowns Chad Mendes on Live Television
Conor McGregor looked to be having a grand old time at the expense of Chad Mendes on Tuesday’s edition of Beyond the Octagon.
Dressed to the nines, the Irish MMA star was live in the BT Sports studio, where show host Gareth Davies was conducting a dual interview via Skype with Mendes. It didn’t take long for things to get ugly.
McGregor wasted little time in going for the jugular by poking fun at Mendes’ height and even threatening to rest his man parts on the top featherweight contender’s head. Like so many featherweights before him, Mendes appeared a bit flustered in the smack-talking department.
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It’s interesting that Mendes would even take the bait and engage McGregor at all, considering he has a UFC title fight scheduled with Jose Aldo on Saturday night. Aldo has been fairly consistent in evading most McGregor questions leading up to his seventh consecutive UFC title defense.
McGregor, who defeated featherweight contender Dustin Poirier a few weeks ago, hasn’t shied away from calling out the entire 145-pound division. He also vowed to be in Brazil on Saturday at UFC 179 to watch what he's deemed the “No. 1 contender” fight between Aldo and Mendes.
Love him or hate him, McGregor has brought desperate needed attention to a division starving for pay-per-view stars.
During McGregor’s post-fight interview at UFC 178, commentator Joe Rogan informed him that 10 percent of all the tickets sold for the event came from Ireland. When speaking on Fox Sports 1's post-UFC 178 show (h/t MMAJunkie.com), UFC president Dana White boldly proclaimed McGregor as a bigger star than both Georges St-Pierre and Brock Lesnar.
A first-round TKO over a talented fighter like Poirier isn’t anything to take lightly, but the gap in talent widens significantly the closer McGregor gets to the top.
Is McGregor destined to wear UFC gold, or is he merely money in the bank account of a top contender?
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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