Conor McGregor says “broken” Jose Aldo was praying he wouldn’t beat Chad Mendes

Conor McGregor hopes he can get Jose Aldo to "show up" to their upcoming title unification bout.

The Notorious defeated Chad Mendes at UFC 189 to claim the interim strap following the withdrawal of featherweight champion Jose Aldo. McGregor explained that he learned a lot from his brutal knockout of the Team Alpha product in Vegas. Principally, he came to the realisation that his predictions tend to ring true.

"I learned that I never get it wrong. I always predict correct."

"I predicted that I would KO [Mendes] inside two rounds. I bet a large sum of money and I won my bet. When I say I will put someone away in whatever time in whatever manner I say, it will happen. That's what happened. I went in there, lit his body up and I put him away."

Mendes stepped in for Aldo on two weeks notice, and some claim that the fatigue he showed in the fight was due to the lack of a full training camp. However, McGregor thinks there was another reason why Mendes seemed noticeably slower as the fight progressed.

"Yet, you have supposed veterans and professionals of the game, or experts, speaking about a full camp. It just made me realize how many bums and rookies there really are in this game. They can't understand that they have never seen clean body-shooting before like they saw in that fight."

"Myself and Chad understand where he was at in that position. He was shut down and he was broke."

McGregor's next bout will be a featherweight unification fight with Aldo that is likely to happen in either December or January. McGregor reckons though that the Brazilian does not want to step inside the Octagon with him at all.

"For me, he (Aldo) is having a breakdown. I said this before. He's looking for his exit from the game. The injury was an opportunity to delay the inevitable so he took it. Make no mistake, when UFC 189 was playing he was under his duvet praying that Chad Mendes would get the win."

"Him and his whole team were praying for that victory so they would not have to face me. I ran out and butchered Chad's body in the knowledge that Jose would be looking with his sore ribs. I just see a fighter who has broke. I hope we can get him to show up, but we will see."

There are no prizes for guessing how the acerbic-tongued Dubliner sees the fight playing out.

"All I know is what I knew July 11. I will be there and I will be victorious."

Hat-tip to MMA Fighting