UFC 189: Mendes vs. McGregor is an upcoming mixed martial arts event that will be held on July 11, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will take place during the UFC's annual International Fight Week. This will be the first event to feature the UFC's Reebok fight kits, which were officially revealed on June 30, 2015, after being announced on December 2, 2014.The event was expected to be headlined by a UFC Featherweight Championship bout between current champion José Aldo and top contender Conor McGregor. On June 23, it was reported that Aldo suffered a rib fracture and could pull out of the bout in light of the injury. A day later, the UFC received official medical confirmation from several doctors that Aldo did not suffer such injury. Following a review of the scans, it was determined that the champion suffered a bone bruise to his rib and cartilage injury during training. Aldo had expressed that he had every intention of fighting.
Despite that, the UFC announced a contingency plan that would have Chad Mendes face McGregor for the interim championship in the event that Aldo could not compete. On June 30, it was confirmed that Aldo indeed pulled out of the bout and that the interim championship bout would take place at this event. UFC president Dana White said the reason for the interim title, in this case, had to do with Aldo's history of pulling out of title fights, despite having defended it only 9 months earlier at UFC 179. The bout will remain the event headliner. On July 1, photographs of Aldo's scans were released and indicated that he had indeed suffered a fractured rib. On July 10, White claimed that Aldo did not have a broken rib as "every x-ray he sent out was of an old injury". He reaffirmed that Aldo had a "bruised rib and cartilage" and that the biggest problem was the weight cut.
The co-main event is expected to feature a UFC Welterweight Championship bout between current champion Robbie Lawler and top contender Rory MacDonald. Their first fight at UFC 167 ended in a split decision victory for Lawler. Matt Brown was briefly linked to a bout with Nate Diaz at the event.[11] However, in mid-April, Brown announced that the pairing had been scrapped.[12] Brown is expected to remain on the card against Tim Means. A welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger and Stephen Thompson was initially expected to take place at this event. However, in mid-May, the bout was made the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale which will take place a day later at the same venue.
John Hathaway was expected to face Gunnar Nelson at the event. However, on June 23, Hathaway pulled out of the bout due to an injury. This prompted a shift in another welterweight bout on the card as Brandon Thatch was pulled from his fight against John Howard to face Nelson, while Cathal Pendred was announced as Howard's new opponent. Pendred had previously fought only 28 days before the event, when he defeated Augusto Montaño at UFC 188. Jeremy Stephens missed weight on his first attempt at the weigh-ins, coming in 3.5 lbs overweight at 149.5 lbs. After having made no attempts to cut further, he was fined 20 percent of his fight purse, which went to Dennis Bermudez.
