LAS VEGAS — Conor McGregor has taken the initiative in the mind games he’s played against Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion Jose Aldo. ADVERTISING LAS VEGAS — Conor McGregor has taken the initiative in the mind games he’s played against
LAS VEGAS — Conor McGregor has taken the initiative in the mind games he’s played against Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
On Friday, Aldo answered by reaching for the mouthy contender’s throat.
After each weighed in at the division’s 145-pound weight limit for Saturday night’s UFC 194 at MGM Grand and posed for their faceoff, Brazil’s Aldo (25-1) stooped down to emulate and mock the trademark kung-fu stance that McGregor makes.
With a roaring, Irish-flag-waving crowd estimated at 7,000 supporting him in song and spirit, McGregor obviously took offense, shattering the self-described “state of Zen” he’s achieved on the eve of his title attempt.
Aldo didn’t care, brushing McGregor’s chest with his left hand and reaching to grab the contender’s neck, forcing UFC President Dana White to separate the fighters.
“I was expecting havoc and it came,” White said. “When Aldo grabbed his neck, I thought, ‘This is going to be bad.’ I jumped in the middle, turned Conor away and got between him and Jose.”
McGregor (18-2) raised his left leg to preview a possible pre-fight kick before White ended the hostilities.
The tussle now becomes subject to the interpretation of all the dime-store psychologists, who will have until Saturday night’s pay-per-view main event to discuss a fight in which McGregor is a slight favorite at Las Vegas sports books.
Has Aldo finally had enough of McGregor’s antics, which included the challenger charging the champion’s ringside seat after a victory this year in Boston, then stealing his belt off a publicity-tour stage in Brazil?
Is the champion, who hasn’t lost in more than 10 years, cracking under the onslaught of gamesmanship? Or is Aldo still confident as he prepares to enter the octagon, expecting to win his 16th straight fight?
“Conor has been the aggressor throughout (this promotion), he backed off a little this week, and was aggressive again today,” White said. “Jose’s pushing back now, saying, ‘You’re not in my … head. Let’s go!’”
Aldo is the UFC’s No. 1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter, and he was met backstage by the hostile shouts of a crazed, agitated McGregor, according to one report.
“I’m sick of hearing about Jose,” McGregor said on stage. “I visualize and look at his facial features and I know that the soft part of his face will not be able to take my shots.
“Tomorrow night, I will bring that gold home for Ireland once again.”
Aldo scoffed, “I don’t care what he has to say. The thing is, I’m coming here (Saturday) night and I’m going to (stay) the champion.”
Meanwhile, unbeaten middleweight champion Chris Weidman (13-0) and No. 1 contender Luke Rockhold (14-2) also came in at weight (185 pounds) for their co-main event Saturday.
White said the middleweights engaged in a heated verbal back-and-forth at their stare-down.
“It’s over, dude. I’m the new champion,” Rockhold said.
Answered Weidman: “I’ve beaten the best and you’re not one of them.”
Weidman, who has two victories over famed former champion Anderson Silva, said his opponent’s vanity and ego will be his undoing.
“This game comes down to being the smarter man. The smarter man in the octagon may not be the smarter man out of the octagon — although I think I beat him there too — but when you’re in a stressful state, you release cortisone in your brain and your thought process becomes cloudy,” Weidman said.
“(Rockhold’s) biggest weakness is his ego. He thinks very highly of himself. … Any second that his ego is too high and there’s a lack of respect, that gives me openings.”
