It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Notorious’ interim featherweight belt-winning fight.
When Chad Mendes took Conor McGregor down in the first few seconds of round one, Irish fight fans feared the worst. Many thought that Mendes would use his wrestling acumen to dominate the Dubliner and sink the heart of every Irish MMA fan.
Fortunately, managed to expertly execute a guillotine choke escape in the second round and land flush with that trusty left hand to win the interim strap.
However, even Conor’s father Tony admitted that Mendes takedowns caused him an awful lot of worry in the fight.
“It was an awesome fight to see and witness him lifting that gold belt, but before that, it was a terrible shock to the family and it was a big shock to the Irish fans as well. We had never seen Conor being taken to the ground like that before.”
Tony explained to MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani that the rest of the McGregor clan in the crowd went into panic mode when Mendes began to dominate on the ground.
“I went into shock when I saw him getting tossed around the Octagon by Chad. We didn’t expect that at all. I was speaking to the fans after and they told that they’d cried during that. Nobody was expecting it whatsoever.”
“My wife panicked and she ran into the back, his two sisters were huddled together hysterical and I think Dee (Conor’s girlfriend) was rooted to the spot crying as well. And this was all in the first round.”
After the brief scare early in the fight, the family were understandably drained after the win. Tony revealed they shared a touching moment following the fight in which they congratulated Conor for his achievement.
“He was so drained of emotions and so drained physically after this fight, so just as a family we put our arms around him and said congratulations, this is an amazing achievement. We were all just shaking with joy.”
