LAS VEGAS — On the night of UFC 189, when Conor McGregor was fighting Chad Mendes for the UFC interim championship in Las Vegas, Jose Aldo was at a friend's house.
He was not watching the fight.
Instead, Aldo was watching his favorite soccer club play. Thousands of miles away, in the heat of the Las Vegas desert, a major bout was unfolding that would determine a potentially gigantic payday for the UFC featherweight champion, and he didn't care. He was so confident that McGregor would win that he did not feel the need to watch.