The Making of the Biggest Featherweight Fight of All-Time

Twice, Conor McGregor had everything to lose.

Twice, McGregor put at risk everything he had worked for in almost twenty bouts inside the cage, years inside the gym, and countless hours answering repetitive media inquiries.

He had risen from a notable regional fighter to being one of the most talked about athletes in his profession in months. He had overcome a torn ACL to defeat a tough opponent, and managed to grow his star power in the 11 months it took him to recover. When he returned, he released his pent up energy in the form of two first-round knockouts. He was clearly next in line for the title, but there was still juice asking to be squeezed out, and the UFC met its call.

First, McGregor and the UFC put it all on the line against Dennis Siver. It was a safe fight, or as safe as fights get at that level, but safe fights have turned dangerous on a dime. The UFC put everything into McGregor – building an entire Fox Sports 1 card around him, having him cut in-game promos on Fox’s most watched football games of the year. UFC’s best cable audience in years – 3.162 million viewers – watched McGregor outclass and out-speed his mid-thirties foe.

Satisfied, the UFC booked the biggest featherweight title match in its history. They commenced a successful multi-city promotional tour and poured more than a million dollars into a commercial shoot. Then disaster struck: the champion went down. The UFC still got the biggest featherweight title fight in its history, as Chad Mendes stepped up to battle McGregor for the interim title, but it was a major change of course. What was supposed to be a grand event turned into an enormous gamble: The difference between a McGregor win and a Mendes win, in the short term, was at least $25 million. Worse, Mendes was hardly Siver; he brought a skill set McGregor had never proven himself against, and on normal notice most experts would have favored Mendes.

Mendes controlled the early portion, but tired under the fire of McGregor’s body attack, and fell in two.

By way of an Irishman whose words are as fiery as his fighting, an all-time great champion whose dominance has yearned for a great rival, calculated promotion, and multiple strokes of fortune, the UFC has finally arrived at the biggest featherweight fight in MMA history.

From the moment that Jose Aldo took the title away from Mike Brown in a stunning display of dominance six years ago, he has ruled the division with no close usurper. The Aldo that took that title was one of the most spectacular fighters in the world. He tore into overmatched opposition, finished Cub Swanson in eight seconds with double flying knees, and manhandled Brown. However, in the fights that followed, he toned down the risks and took a more measured approach. In his seven-fight run as UFC champion, he’s had only one highlight finish – a knee that cracked Chad Mendes on the jaw – against five decision victories. It’s no wonder that in a featherweight division that came to the UFC void of big stars, Aldo has never been a bankable champion.

Aldo has had successful fights in Brazil, in particular the aforementioned match with Mendes near the height of the country’s interest in MMA. However, he never got the promotional support an athlete of his caliber warranted, he isn’t notably charismatic, and he never had the rival to elevate his profile. In a certain way, he’s similar to Anderson Silva early in his UFC career.
https://youtu.be/MQ1i_GZoLgo
Like Aldo, Silva entered the UFC to immediate success, albeit in more spectacular fashion. His first two matches were less fights than one-man shows (as were many of his later bouts), with quick and decisive wins against Chris Leben and Rich Franklin, two relatively big names in the promotion. In Silva’s first seven matches with the promotion, no opponent lasted to see the end of round two. Despite that, and the UFC actively promoting as the world’s best fighter pound-for-pound beginning in late 2007, Silva remained one of the company’s worst drawing champions into 2009. It wasn’t until an otherworldly performance against former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin and a feud with Chael Sonnen that each of Silva’s bouts became major events.

Aldo wasn’t as spectacular or charismatic as Silva, so the UFC struggled with promoting him. With Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, and Renan Barao around, the UFC never pulled the trigger to promote Aldo as its best fighter consistently. The featherweight division had few major names, and none of them were big talkers, so Aldo toiled along for years, besting elite competition with no mainstream notoriety (outside of Brazil) and no light at the end of the tunnel. Then Conor McGregor strutted in, put his feet up, received strong promotional support from the beginning, proved he was more than worth that support, and made his challenge of the greatest featherweight of all-time one of the biggest matches in UFC history.

The story of Aldo vs. McGregor is simple. It’s the brash, exciting challenger versus the established, dominant champion. The road to Aldo vs. McGregor was anything but simple. One fighter had to remain atop one of the sports deepest divisions for years. The other overcame injuries, and used his punches, kicks, and words in a rapid ascent to the top. Along the way, some very risky situations returned favorably, ensuring that on December 12, aggressive promotion will return richly.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.