As McGregor proves superstar status, some questions reveal complex answers

LAS VEGAS – You know there was a moment during Conor McGregor’s main event victory over Chad Mendes at UFC 189 where the UFC brass got worried.

It was probably somewhere between takedowns three and four for Mendes (17-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC), slightly before the second-round TKO finish, but right around the time McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) seemed like he was going to spend all night gazing up at the ceiling of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and Mendes seemed like he was going to grind his way into a third shot at UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.

That wasn’t just blood leaking out of McGregor’s face – that was money. It was a potential UFC superstar being gradually downgraded to regular star, and in front of thousands of rabid Irish fans who had traveled a long way just to see questions about McGregor’s wrestling skills answered in the most unpleasant fashion possible.

Then McGregor got up. To be fair, Mendes played right into his preferred strategy for getting up, opting to pass the guard and look for a choke rather than trying to feed him elbows from the top.

But still, it was McGregor who did the scrambling and McGregor who took the necessary risk required to put his feet back on the floor. And when he returned to an upright and locked position, you could almost see Mendes deciding he’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Were the strikes that followed especially powerful? Not really, said Mendes. What they were, was “accurate.” Like laser-guided missiles, it was one direct hit after another. Mendes, sucking air through his mouth, scanning the area for clear routes of retreat, found nothing but trouble everywhere he turned. Eventually the only path left was straight down.

Somehow, all this took slightly less than 10 minutes. Judging by his look at the post-fight press conference, that’s significantly less time than it takes McGregor to get dressed.

If we came to this fight hoping to get some questions answered, we got our wish. At the same time, some of the answers we got were more complex than a simple yes or no.

For instance, can McGregor wrestle? Not really, but he can still beat wrestlers. Can he take a punch? Sure, though he seems a little too willing to do it.

These and other lessons were surely not lost on other UFC featherweights, especially former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who jumped up after this fight looking like a starving man who’d just spotted an unattended pie cooling on a windowsill.

Some questions, however, had mercifully simple answers. Questions such as, will McGregor break under pressure? Not even close. Can he at least be silenced, however temporarily? Not according to Mendes, who said he “didn’t stop taking sh-t the entire time.” Is he the biggest star the UFC has? Absolutely.

After UFC 189, that star emerged not only intact, but burning with a certain inescapable fury. McGregor brought the Irish to Las Vegas and rewarded them with a victory worth singing in the streets about (by the way, good luck with the clean-up, Vegas PD). He also rewarded UFC executives’ faith in him, and justified the hyperbole that’s swirled around him for months.

The win might not have been perfect – it might have even been encouraging for likely future opponents such as Aldo and Edgar – but it was still a win. It was also high, intense drama, like Shakespeare with real swords and genuine poison goblets.

And, lest we forget, it came from what was essentially the UFC’s plan B.

That’s the other good news to come out of the UFC 189 main event. It was a replacement fight that only makes the original plan now seem all the more enticing. McGregor vs. Aldo to unify the UFC featherweight title? That’s the biggest fight the UFC can realistically make, which is something we’ve never said about the 145-pound division before.

For that, we have McGregor to thank. So does the UFC. And, judging by the way UFC President Dana White was grinning when McGregor showed up to the post-fight press conference wearing a watch so big and blinged that it made the interim belt look dull, UFC executives will be offering McGregor plenty of thanks, probably for a long time to come.

For complete coverage of UFC 189, check out the UFC Events section of the site.