Mendes: I’m going to love beating the crap out of Conor

On Tuesday UFC president Dana White announced that UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo’s rib injury was such that he was unable to fight Conor McGregor at UFC 189 on July 11, and that he would be replaced with Chad Mendes. Mendes and McGregor will be fighting for the Interim championship.

Mendes had been standing by in case Aldo was unable to fight, and in an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, described how McGregor was going to fall, and how he was selected over Frankie Edgar.

“I feel for (Edgar),” said Mendes as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMAFighting.com. “I have nothing against Frankie. Me and Frankie are right there in the same spot. Ultimately that was up to the UFC. Obviously I feel very honored that they chose me, but yeah, I feel like Frankie could make a case just as much as I could.”

“As soon as I got this call and they said get ready I basically just shut out any possibility that Aldo was coming back. I have to get my weight down. I’m coming up with a game plan and going over it, fine-tuning cardio … That’s my mindset. I wake up every morning, I sit there and game plan stuff while I’m laying in bed before I get out.”

“I’m excited, man. I think this is a great match-up for me. Conor’s a tough guy, but Conor’s a guy I know I can beat.”

“He just went through an entire training camp for a guy that’s a Muay Thai fighter, and now he’s facing a guy that’s going to put him on his back. It definitely changes the whole game plan but, I just heard his coach talking. This is a fight that a lot of people from Ireland are coming to see, taking out big loans and stuff. So it would be pretty messed up on his part to have to back out now with all his friends and family coming. There’s a lot of pressure on that, a lot riding on him to keep that fight going. So I don’t think he has a choice.”

“He’s definitely said things to make this personal … the guy just loves talking crap, though, I mean, that’s Conor. He’s an actor, he’s a guy that’s selling fights. I’m not going to get in there and fight emotionally. I’m going to love to beat the crap out of this guy, don’t get me wrong, but there’s nothing that dude’s going to say to take me out of my game, push me too far or make me fight emotionally. I’m going to get in there and do what I do every single time. I’m going to put the pace on him, I’m going to put him on his back and I’m going to make him uncomfortable and I’m going to beat the crap out of him. Bottom line is this is what I was born to do, and it’s time.”

“If I could go out there and knock this dude out, I definitely think that’s a possibility. He takes a lot of punches in fights and comes in with his hands down a lot and he gets cocky in there a little bit. I feel like I have the power and the speed to put this guy out. If not I can see myself taking this dude out by taking him down and submitting him. I’ve seen past fights where he’s lost, got submitted. The guy, he’ll tap. He’s got that give up, that quit in him. And I’m really going to test that in this fight. And if not either of those two [outcomes] I’d be more than happy to go five rounds of putting this dude on his back, beating a hole in his face the whole time. Any of the three sounds good to me.”

The UFC already has a new promo video for the fight.