This is the official discussion thread for McGregor vs. Mendes. Let's see what you've got.

It will be interesting to see if McGregor can handle Mendez' wrestling. I think if Mendez can establish the take down early, he will go home with the belt. I still think McGregor is a wild card, in the sense we really haven't seen every aspect of his game yet. So maybe he will shock the world and prove everyone wrong.

The big question here is whether or not Mendes will be able to take Conor down. If it turns out to be a striking fight, then Mendes will be in trouble. Conor is taller, longer reach and a much more diverse striker. I think that Conor will be in trouble if it goes to the later rounds. Mendes will not tire and he wont quit. I believe that Conor has it in him to get the knockout early though. He is young, strong and super motivated.

Mendes does tire though, in The second Aldo fight he was obviously gassed and against Nik Lentz, I even remember him tiring against Omigawa. McGregor being a huge athletic Featherweight who's skilled in pressuring and working the body....all that Muscle mass Mendes has, even if Conor loses I believe he will tire Mendes.

Mendes has fought a lot of cans for being a perennial number 2 in the division, Conor actually has fought fairly steep competition fora first time title challenger....compare him to Weidman or Gustafsson. Ivan Buchinger, Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, Diego Brandao, Dennis Silver and he embarrassed all of them, he's nothing short of exceptional.

As for the Conor is bigger, reach advantage...come on guys Mendes is faster, physically stronger and has more raw punching power because of his frame and wrestlers know how to use a low center of gravity. We can't just choose certain aspects of physics to like and other aspects to ignore. 

Lastly, it's not as simple as if Mendes can get Conor down if you ask me. Mendes has great scrambles, top control and take down but... his ability to pass, threaten with submissions and land heavy ground and pound is far from great. It's been a long time since we've seen McGregor off his back and he's spent years with John Kavanagh and Gunnar Nelson two grappling savants in their own rights. 'MMA judging is slowly catching up soon we won't see King Mo vs Gegard Mousasi or Hendricks vs Condit type decisions anymore. 

There's a million things to discuss because this is quite a flavorful fight in many ways. I cannot wait.
          

* Edited at 07.06.2015, 8:28 AM ET *

McGregor gonna McGregor. 

I think this fight deserves a Super AV Bet.

I'm one of the guys who also thinks, this is where Conor belongs . and that This should also be for the number #2 spot in the rankings. 
Because the number #1 spot is Frankie Edgar.  Before the Aldo/MacGregor fight was in full swing.... Edgar sat atop at #1. Then oddly enough Mendes took #1  and Edgar dropped to #2.  It was reasons like this that I was turned off of boxing 15 years ago.
But it is what it is and we still have a great match up, and rightful path for MacGregor.  No leap frogging here. 
I can't wait to see the fight....i think Mendes fancys himself a striker these days and he is gonna try and out blast Conor.  If Conor hurts Mendes at anytime, you'll see Mendes become a wrestler, but I believe Mendes will do what he did with Lamas.  The first round could be a boring,  even, technical round.  Unless one of them gets staggered and it gets wild.  
For the record,... Im not a fan of Mendes, and I'm not sold on MacGregor yet.  But I'm hoping for Mendes to test Conor and let the world see if he really deserved a title shot or not. It's a perfect match up... I love it.  
Also,... Frankie Edgar is the real #1.
Conor went from formidable fringe contender Dennis Siver and right into a elite list of Aldo, Edgar, Mendes. 
And I can not wait to see if Conor can hang at the top. 

I'm looking for Mendes to give up round one, grind Conor in round two.... The hurt and submit a spent MacGregor. At least that my call.

Mendes wins for me here

Mendes tends to stick to left or right hooks. He does not employ a jab, but if he closes the distance he could knock McGregor out. I'm not a fan of McGregor anymore, he seems like a tool now and isn't humble at all. He's Dana White's golden boy. Hope Mendes puts him out ass up face down. 

Was he ever humble? Just wondering why your opinion has changed now, seems to me he has been acting the same way since he got here.

50/50??? Craziness. 

I'll answer you why my opinion changed on McGregor. He is just too Narcissitic, I expected him to be humble. I'm not a fan trash talking fighters. I believe the best fights happen when both athletes are calm and collected. I think Conor is just too over confident he has left himself open to counters, if he gets clocked by Mendes he will not survive. 

Don't mistake promotion and confidence with narcissism and over-confidence.

Whether Conor wins or loses you can be sure it won't be for looking past Chad. He may say a lot of things, but believe me he's taking this fight seriously and he knows Chad isn't a chump.

Yeah I think most of what he does is to promote himself which whether you like him or not he does a great job at. I'm usually a fan of the **** talk, I love the Diaz brothers, but I haven't taking a liking to Conor yet. I think it's mostly because he destroyed Poirier.

* Edited at 07.07.2015, 1:53 PM ET *

I agree, he is taking this fight very seriously. I'm just not sure if his hands down chin up style will work against Mendes.

The Aldo vs Conor fight in a way was more exciting because they are arguably the two best strikers in the FTW division, and you knew they were going to trade big shots all around.  the Mendes vs Conor fight probably will not have the same level of explosion and excitement, but I think is a much more interesting fight, Mendes is a good enough striker to stand and trade punches with Conor although Mendes would most likley loose an all striking match with him, but when wrestling gets into the equation things change, Conor has never been tested by a wrestler and he is facing the best wrestler the division has. after this fight we will know if Conor will get as far as wrestlers let him or if he really have what it takes to rule the FTW for years to come.

personally I think this is a bad match for Conor, there are a few things against him, his training camp was probably set to fight Aldo´s specific style which didn´t include wrestling, Mendes will not be mentaly/emotionaly drained like Aldo, so if that ever was going to be a factor now it surley isn´t. Mendes has better cardio than Aldo so he will put on a fight for 5 rounds which he has fought before, lastly I think Mendes has a champion mindset and he has nothing to loss in this fight, Conor has more to lose, even if they can "justify" his loss (if he losses) he will have lost some of that aura of invincibility in which the UFC has promoted him. which by the way I don´t get why the UFC insist on using that factor to promote their favorite fighters, it´s MMA everyone losses sooner or later, we all know that, look at Fedor, GSP and Silva.

* Edited at 07.07.2015, 3:07 PM ET *

Looking back at each fighter's records; I have picked all of Mendes' & McGregor's fights correctly.  

Mendes has beat plenty of wrestlers, but not any elite strikers (besides Cody McKenzie).  

McGregor hasn't faced any elite wrestlers either.  

I think anything could happen, and I have no damn idea.  

On UFC Tonight Daniel Cormier was saying something about training camp issues for MacGregor. What is DC talking about? What training camp issues?

McGregor had a lot of media obligations, he eluded to it in the embedded videos.  Lots of hotel room training. 

Thank you Benjamin. Just was curious.