The UFC has announced that the featherweight unification bout between interim champion Conor McGregor and long-time titleholder Jose Aldo is set to headline UFC 194 in Las Vegas on Dec. 12.
There has been a line up for the December fight at the books for a few days, and it has McGregor a (-175) favorite over Aldo, who is returning at (+155). The over/under for the five round bout is set at 2.5 rounds, with the over paying (-120) and the under coming back at (+100).
The odds favoring McGregor seem to complete the Irishman’s rise to be a mainstream star. The two men were slated to meet at UFC 189 this past July, but Aldo famously pulled out due to an injured rib, leaving McGregor to face Chad Mendes. The initial odds for the July fight had Aldo coming in as the favorite, and as the fight neared, McGregor closed the gap. He never quite emerged as the odds-on favorite against Aldo, though he was favored over Mendes when that fight went down. McGregor’s big win over Mendes was enough to now have him favored over a long-time, dominant champion in Aldo.
To McGregor’s credit, he has turned this into a must-watch event. We have seen Aldo mow over most of the weight class already, but McGregor’s size and length negate some of Aldo’s physical advantages. More than that however is the mental pressure that McGregor is exerting on the champion. Aldo has been able to basically come in and “just fight” and he has let his in-ring octagon talent do the rest.
Aldo has never had to handle the type of pressure that will gather in the lead up to what could be the UFC’s most hyped fight ever. And we all know by now that McGregor feeds on that sort of pressure.
Precedent says that Aldo could be hurt in training as he has delayed or postponed fights six times in the past, but he will need to avoid injury. What is more, he needs to avoid the drama of the volatile Nova Uniao team where he has a lot of high level teammates experiencing their own career adversities.
Aldo also appeared to be less than cooperative with drug testing protocols in the build-up to the previous fight, and he must avoid all of that type of attention. McGregor will be there to tell you about every mishap and mistake, because to him, the fight isn’t on Dec. 12. It’s already started.
