Conor McGregor

Robbie Lawler Stops Rory MacDonald in Bloody, Slugfest

By FCF Staff

Conor McGregor was taken down several times and bloodied by Chad Mendes, but the Irish star went on to stop the American at UFC 189.

In the opening round, Mendes took McGregor to the mat on a couple of occasions and punished the featherweight with elbows and punches. McGregor worked his way out and began firing away with strikes, but was taken down again.

As round two began, McGregor was cut by his right eye, and again, was taken to the mat. After holding the top position for several minutes, Mendes elected to go for a choke but couldn’t hold it. McGregor got to his feet, and proceeded to land several hard punches, which put Mendes down. Referee Herb Dean jumped in, and in doing so, handed McGregor the interim featherweight belt.

In the co-headliner, welterweights Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler went to war, and the latter earned a memorable, fifth round stoppage win.

Lawler bloodied MacDonald early on with punches, and was pulling ahead, but the challenger turned things around in the middle frames after landing a headkick. It looked like Lawler might be stopped in round four, but the champ rebounded and finished MacDonald with a left straight in round five.

Here are the results for UFC 189, which down in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Conor McGregor def. Chad Mendes via TKO (punches) R2, 4:57

Robbie Lawler def. Rory MacDonald via TKO (punches) R5, 1:00

Jeremy Stephens def. Dennis Bermudez via TKO (flying knee and punches) R3, 0:32

Gunnar Nelson def. Brandon Thatch via submission (rear-naked-choke) R1, 2:54

Thomas Almeida def. Brad Pickett via KO (flying knee) R2, 0:29

Matt Brown def. Tim Means via submission (guillotine choke) R1, 4:44

Alex Garcia def. Mike Swick via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

John Howard def. Cathal Pendred via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Cody Garbrandt def. Henry Briones via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Louis Smolka def. Neil Seery via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Cody Pfister def. Yosdenis Cedeno via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)