Unlike other professional sports, there is no offseason in MMA. Week in and week out, fight cards all over the world are taking place. Some weeks there will be major fight cards filled with big name fighters others not so much, but there are fights taking place every week.

Regardless of whether the fighters are household names or not, The MMA Corner will preview the best fight taking place during the week.

This week’s ‘Fight of the Week’ is the UFC interim featherweight title fight between Conor McGregor and Chad Mendes.

On Saturday, July 11, 2015, the UFC heads to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 189: Mendes vs. McGregor. There Mendes and McGregor will battle it out for the interim featherweight title and a shot at long-time champion Jose Aldo once he has recovered from injury.

Originally, McGregor was set to face Aldo for the undisputed title. But after suffering a rib injury, Aldo was forced to withdraw and Mendes was more than happy to step in on short notice. Even though this bout doesn’t have the same level of hype heading in, McGregor vs. Mendes is a great matchup.

Riding an impressive 13-fight win streak with five straight Octagon victories, McGregor has a lot of momentum behind him heading into UFC 189. Between his exciting style and his brash bravado, McGregor has become one of the UFC’s biggest stars. But there are a lot of people out there who believe that he hasn’t done enough to earn a title shot.

Mendes on the other hand has proven to be title worthy on two occasions; coming up short to Aldo both times. Looking to change his title fortunes against McGregor, Mendes will enter the cage with a huge chip on his shoulder and a major stylistic advantage.

This will be McGregor’s first test against an elite wrestler and it will be interesting to see how he handles Mendes’ skill set. At the same time, Mendes is giving up an eight inches of reach to McGregor; that’s a huge obstacle to overcome.

Regardless of how this one plays out the fans win with this matchup.

About The Author

RJ Gardner
Content Coordinator

RJ Gardner is a rabid sports fan and a long time MMA enthusiast. After watching UFC 1 at ripe old age of 11 RJ was hooked and his passion for the sport has continued to blossom over the years. RJ has been covering MMA since 2007 and has had work featured on Bleacher Report, SI.com, CBSSports.com and UFC.com. RJ is also a Petroleum Transportation Operations Manager during the day.