Chad Mendes, Frankie Edgar still the class of featherweight contender race
When Chad Mendes met Ricardo Lamas in the main event of the UFC Fight Night card in Fairfax, Virginia, on Saturday, it was supposed to be a clash of two former title contenders who were both looking to stake a claim to the top contender spot to face the winner of Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor.
It took Mendes fewer than three minutes to bombard Lamas with strikes to the point where he actually had to tell the referee to stop the fight because he didn't want to hurt him anymore.
Mendes not only defeated Lamas, but he proved that when it comes to the class of the featherweight contender race, he's standing shoulder to shoulder with former lightweight king Frankie Edgar and despite his title shot, McGregor is still left in third.
Prior to his loss to Aldo last October, Mendes had already blasted through five straight fights at featherweight including four wins by TKO and a one-sided decision over top 10-ranked competitor Nik Lentz while simultaneously battling a nasty case of the flu.
Meanwhile, Edgar has looked virtually unstoppable since moving down to featherweight outside of his first fight against Aldo. Although, if one round on a scorecard went in another direction, he could be standing tall as champion right now.
Edgar then beat highly-touted prospect Charles Oliveira before sending future UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn into retirement. He then stormed through Cub Swanson, who was ranked No. 2 in the world.
Edgar awaits a May showdown with former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber in a bout where he will be a heavy favorite going into the five-round main event.
Over the course of the past few months, Mendes and Edgar have both picked up huge statement wins against top five competition to separate them from everybody else in the contender's race and that includes golden boy, Conor McGregor.
There's no doubt when it comes to promotion and impressive wins, McGregor isn't exactly waltzing into his title shot against Aldo without putting in some real work. He beat Dustin Poirier inside of five minutes and in his next fight the Louisiana native bumped up to 155 pounds and took out a very respectable lightweight in Diego Ferreira by first-round knockout.
None of it really matters to McGregor, who is laughing all the way to the bank right now as he gets ready to cash in on the biggest payday in featherweight history when he faces Aldo in July at UFC 189. And despite his lack of accolades, McGregor might present a serious stylistic problem for Aldo when they meet, and there's a good chance he could walk out of Las Vegas with the featherweight title.
His reward will be the two best wrestlers at 145 pounds in Mendes and Edgar, which is one type of fighter McGregor still hasn't faced in the UFC. Mendes showed with his win over Lamas that he also has the most one-punch knockout power, while Edgar may possess the most dangerous boxing and ground-and-pound game in the division.
Mendes has a unique chance to help -- at least in some small way -- the potential outcome of Edgar's next fight because he will train with Faber before their matchup in May. He will certainly put everything he has into Faber to help him win, because if he can find a way to top Edgar, the title race is officially narrowed down to one.
"I think it's (Edgar vs. Faber) and mine and Lamas' fight, who's going to be the true No. 1 contender and fight for the title next," Mendes said after his win on Saturday. "I'm going to be watching that very closely. I'm going to sit down and talk with Urijah, he has a great chance of winning that fight and I'm going to help him go in there and do it."
As of right now, McGregor has already been handed his title shot and he will promote UFC 189 into one of the most hyped and talked-about championship fights in mixed martial arts history.
But make no mistake, right now Mendes and Edgar still stand above the crowd when it comes to the top two fighters in the world at 145 pounds not named Jose Aldo.
Everyone wants a piece of Jose Aldo's title belt.
