Conor McGregor has had many legendary moments in his UFC career. However, his first title win in the promotion at UFC 189 remains a special one. The Irishman walked out to Sinead O’Connor singing ‘The Foggy Dew’ and beat Chad Mendes in front of around 16,000 spectators to secure the interim featherweight title. While many regard McGregor’s win over Jose Aldo or Eddie Alvarez as his most iconic ones, the one against Mendes started it all.

While McGregor stole the limelight and the prize, Mendes may not have received enough credit for showing up at UFC 189. He took the fight on short notice after the then-featherweight champion Jose Aldo pulled out. Mendes made weight, showed up to fight, and gave McGregor a run for his money inside the cage. However, he fell to ‘The Notorious’ one’s left hand in the second round.

Now, eight years after that historic night, Mendes has opened up about his loss to McGregor.

Chad Mendes opens up about loss to Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor scored a TKO win in the second round over Chad Mendes at UFC 189. However, the Irishman may not have faced the best version of Mendes. During a recent interview with Cameron Hanes, Mendes stated the McGregor fight was the one that still kept him up at night.

He said, “…the Conor fight. Yeah man, it was brutal, you know. Getting that call on 10 days’ notice. You know, cutting 25 lbs in a short amount of time, and just, you know, not being as prepared as I could have been to fight a guy like that. I know I could have beat that guy if I was prepared but…”

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Mendes also revealed that he was not fully recovered from the Aldo fight prior to that. The 38-year-old said, “Yeah, my body was beat up, you know. I was telling you I was peeing blood that night when I got back to the hotel after the Aldo fight. Just the most pain head to toe my body has ever been in.”

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He continued, “Like, that’s really the only war I’ve ever experienced in my career and it was brutal, man. So yeah, I mean, I wasn’t really training a whole lot for a few months after that. Just letting my body heal… Getting a call at the last second doesn’t help anything.”

Although he came in on such short notice, Mendes gave McGregor a lot of trouble. He took him down multiple times and even managed to cut him open with elbow strikes. In retrospect, while McGregor proved his doubters wrong, Mendes may have exposed that wrestling was the Irishman’s kryptonite.

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All things considered, do you think Mendes would have beaten McGregor with a full camp? Let us know in the comments.