It hasn't been the best couple of months for Camp Nova Uniao, home base for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo and former UFC bantamweight kingpin, Renan Barao, among others.
Not only was Aldo forced out of his rematch against Chad Mendes with a neck injury, which was supposed to go down on Aug. 2, 2014 at UFC 176, but Renan was pulled from his title bout against T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 177 after Barao fainted during his weight cut.
In Conor McGregor's view, those unfortunate mishaps -- as well as their recent unhappiness with pay -- only adds to his assessment that that Brazil-based mixed martial arts (MMA) camp has a problem with teaching its fighters mental toughness.
His words to ESPN:
"I like the mental side of combat sports -- of anything, really. That win over Barao with TJ Dillashaw changes the shift in things. That's a factor. Then you've got the fact Barao missed weight. There are definitely problems in that camp. They've been complaining about money and then injuries back and forth. I feel a weakness in the mind frame of these people, which can go up and down sometimes, so you never know."
Regardless of how weak-minded Aldo may be, McGregor says he still gives him a slight mental edge over Mendes when the two meet at UFC 179 on Oct. 25, 2014, thanks to his first-round knockout victory over "Money" a few years back.
McGregor is slated to take on Dustin Poirier at this weekend's (Sat. Sept, 27, 2014) UFC 178 pay-per-view (PPV) event in Las Vegas, Nevada. After that, "Notorious" plans to attend UFC 179 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on UFC's dime of course, seeing as the promotion invited him to be a guest at the event.
Does that mean that a title shot could be in C-Mac's future with a win over "The Diamond?"
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