With just about a week to go, Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor are expected to be wrapping up their respective preparations. Both will finally face off at UFC 194 for the featherweight title at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas this coming December 12.
Of the two, McGregor has been his usual braggart and talkative self. He has mixed that with his publicized training methods, the latest of which finds him training ala “Rocky” style on a Los Angeles beach to help acclimatize himself to the conditions for the much awaited tiff.
As always, McGregor has not run short of his trash talks. His latest was that Instagram post where he was made it look like he was standing over Aldo titled “Wake up Jose, It’s all over”.
Though there were doubts on whether Aldo would actually show up or not, UFC president Dana White assures that the Brazilian champ will be at the fight.
McGregor is apparently toying with the idea, recalling how Aldo pulled out of their fight at UFC 189 back in July. Aldo withdrew from that fight when he suffered a rib injury during training and McGregor ended up fighting Chad Mendes instead.
As far as forecasting the fight is concerned, McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh see it in two ways. One is that the fight will go as far as two rounds as he wrote on The 42 and another where he believes the fight will end within 60 seconds.
Kavanagh adds that he believes Aldo will try to slow the pace and resort to grappling, the same way that Chad Mendes did back in July. Regardless, he believes that McGregor will find a way to work through it as he believes that McGregor has a high fight IQ.
'It’s almost like The Matrix, in that he sees a new problem which is being presented, downloads the correct response from his brain and then executes the plan,' say Kavanagh via the Daily Mail.
On the other side, Aldo has been quiet leading to UFC 194 though he has been making his own preparations as well.
And just like the psyche acts between the two, Aldo doesn’t believe McGregor is that great of a fighter.
"I believe he got to where he is just by talking," Aldo said via Fox Sports. "I believe he's behind Chad (Mendes) and Frankie (Edgar). He got here by marketing himself. I've always believed he'll be at the end of the line behind me, behind Frankie, and behind Chad."
Aldo carries a lot of experience against McGregor heading to their tiff though the Notorious’ striking could be something he may want to avoid.
He is confident as well that he will bring McGregor back down to earth and perhaps silence him for a night. Apparently he is aware that should he come out on top, it is unlikely that the Notorious will stop yapping.
"When we get inside (the Octagon), that's how I am -- I'm calm, I don't worry about anything else. I'm always just focused on the task ahead. I've always been like that."