"It's not what he wanted, but it's not the worst situation possible for Conor."
That was MMA Fighting.com's Ariel Helwani on Off The Ball tonight as he analysed the impact Jose Aldo's withdrawal from a scheduled UFC title fight will have on Conor McGregor.
The Dubliner will still be fighting in Las Vegas on July 11th but it will be against Chad Mendes for an interim featherweight title rather than the full-blown thing with Aldo.
And there is a "silver lining" for McGregor as he comes up against a noted wrestler in Mendes.
"Everyone, since he came into the UFC, said two things about him: A) He was being protected, he was cutting the line, the UFC wasn't matching him up against certain types of fighters that aren't good matchups for him, and B) that he's afraid of wrestlers," said Helwani.
"But now look what he's doing. Not only is he fighting a wrestler, he's fighting a wrestler on two weeks notice - very different fighter from Jose Aldo and almost just as skilled. He's right up there. Aldo's better, in my opinion, he's beaten him twice. But Chad Mendes is one of the very best fighters in the world and he's a wrestler. This is going to answer that question and on top of that they have a very good rivalry. The trash-talk is going to be great leading up to this."
Helwani also brushed off any talk of Aldo being scared, in light of his trend of pulling out of fights through injury, citing the nature of the rib issue and the fact that it would have been his biggest pay-day.
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