#ufc188

Watch UFC 189: Fight Night Mendes vs. McGregor Live Online

The event will take place during the UFC's annual International Fight Week.

This will be the first event to feature the UFC's Reebok uniforms, which were officially revealed on June 30, 2015, after being announced on December 2, 2014.

Watch UFC 189 Fight Night Live Streaming via - http://goodstuffgiveaways.com/

The event was expected to be headlined by a UFC Featherweight Championship bout between current champion José Aldo and top contender Conor McGregor. On June 23, it was reported that Aldo suffered a rib fracture and could pull out of the bout in light of the injury. A day later, the UFC received official medical confirmation from several doctors that Aldo did not suffer such injury. Following a review of the scans, it was determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training. Aldo had expressed that he had every intention of fighting. Despite that, the UFC announced a contingency plan that would have Chad Mendes face McGregor for the interim championship in the event that Aldo could not compete. On June 30, it was confirmed that Aldo indeed pulled out of the bout and that the interim championship bout would take place at this event. UFC president Dana White said the reason for the interim title, in this case, had to do with Aldo's history of pulling out of title fights, despite having defended it only 9 months earlier at UFC 179. The bout will remain the event headliner. On July 1, photographs of Aldo's scans were released and indicated that he had indeed suffered a fractured rib.

The co-main event is expected to feature a UFC Welterweight Championship bout between current champion Robbie Lawler and top contender Rory MacDonald. Their first fight at UFC 167 ended in a split decision victory for Lawler.

Matt Brown was briefly linked to a bout with Nate Diaz at the event.= However, in mid-April, Brown announced that the pairing had been scrapped. Brown is expected to remain on the card against Tim Means.

A welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger and Stephen Thompson was initially expected to take place at this event. However, in mid-May, the bout was made the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale which will take place on July 12, 2015 at the same venue.

John Hathaway was expected to face Gunnar Nelson at the event. However, on June 23, Hathaway pulled out of the bout due to an injury. This prompted a shift in another welterweight bout on the card as Brandon Thatch was pulled from his fight against John Howard to face Nelson, while Cathal Pendred was announced as Howard's new opponent. Pendred had previously fought only 28 days before the event, when he defeated Augusto Montaño at UFC 188.

This Saturday, the wait is finally over and Conor McGregor will meet Chad Mendes in the main event of UFC 189. A great matchup, without a doubt. But not the particular matchup that everyone wanted to see. When featherweight champion Jose Aldo had to pull out last week due to a broken rib, the fight lost a lot of it's magic.

Chael Sonnen, never shy of commenting anything UFC related, stated on the latest episode of the MMA Hour, that not only would he have decided to fight, no one would have known about his injury in the first place.

"I would never come in with an excuse. If I had a broken rib, you damn sure would never know about it. If one of my teammates came out and did an interview about how he broke my rib, he's no longer my teammate. It's a simple as that. I would never discredit the sport or my opponent by reading my injury list before or after the fight. I've always thought it's a very underhanded thing to do and it's a very cowardly thing to do, to come out and say I'm hurt, particularly if you win a fight. [...] Your message is very clear. You're saying, I beat you, and had I been healthy, I would've beaten you even easier. So as far as legacy goes, the one thing that I'm proud of was that I would always compete. I was looking to compete. I was never a bully, I would take on everybody at anytime. Whether that was the No. 1 guy in the world or whether that was the No. 100 guy in the world, it didn't make any bit of different. If somebody wanted to fight, I would show up and fight."