UFC 194 Conor McGregor vs Jose Also: The two men claiming to be the Featherweight King finally go to war, writes Dan Hardy

In his final instalment for the week, Dan Hardy takes a closer look at the two Championship fights taking place on Saturday

Conor McGregor with the interim Featherweight belt (Josh Hedges/ Zuffa LLC)

The co-main event of this amazing show is not only a real clash of styles, but also of personalities. The challenger, Luke Rockhold, is the stereotypical Californian surfer, hanging out at the beach, partying with his friends, enjoying what comes with being a successful professional athlete. Chris Weidman on the other hand is a blue collar Christian family man, driven to succeed so he can provide a good life for his children.

Quietly confident, Weidman is no trash talker – he believes in good preparation and a great working relationship with his teammates and coaches. With the legendary Serra-Longo team in his corner, Weidman’s between-round breaks are as comical as they are constructive. His team have a real way with words, and because Chris is so familiar with that style of communication, he responds well. Tough and aggressive, you will never have to go looking for Weidman in the Octagon. In fact, it’s far more likely that you won’t be able to get away from him. This bout though, could offer the most well-rounded challenger he has faced since capturing the belt.

Rockhold is great at distance. He uses a long southpaw stance and constantly threatens with his power left kick and counter right hook. If his opponent can get by his long range artillery, they then have to worry about getting caught in a scramble and giving up a limb, or more likely their neck. With solid takedown defence, Rockhold is able to initiate a scramble and often take the back of his opponent. As Lyoto Machida learned in their recent bout, Rockhold in top position is a real nightmare.

It may be that his grappling skills don’t even come into play though, if Weidman can control the range of the fight. Fighting in close would be my game plan for the Champ, preventing Rockhold from getting the space to strike or the opportunity to find an advantageous position on the ground. It’s a hard one to call but counting out Weidman at this stage would be foolish. We have done it so many times in the past and regretted it. Now he insists that the doubts should come to an end, and surely an impressive win over Rockhold would silence any critics once and for all.

Once the rest of the fights are in the history books and the Octagon canvas has been marked with the blood and sweat of the warriors on the undercard, it will be time for the main event, as the two men claiming to be the Featherweight King, Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor, finally go to war.

The long-reigning champion Aldo has withstood a lot in the lead up to this bout. After taking part in a promotional world tour where the two fighters were paraded out together numerous times, antagonising an already fraught relationship, Aldo was then forced to withdraw from the originally scheduled July fight due to injury. When Aldo was removed from that fight, Chad Mendes stepped up at short notice and took on the Irish superstar for the interim world title. Aldo was not impressed. McGregor won the bout, and in doing so paved the way for the Aldo vs. McGregor fight to be scheduled again in order to unify the Featherweight belts.

Now, with both men healthy and ready to fight, the moment is nearly upon us. I hope they are both being wrapped up in cotton wool and guarded 24/7 until they step in to that Octagon. I for one need some closure on this fight.

McGregor has convinced half of the world that he will win and the other half that there is a fighter that could take that belt off Aldo. Nobody doubts his skill – his ability to sell a fight may be the only thing better than his martial arts – but many fans still see Aldo as almost super-human. He has reigned for so long that imagining someone finally beating him seemed wildly unrealistic… until now. But Aldo is one of the all-time greats and many want to see him successful at least one more time, especially against the trash-talking McGregor. It’s hard to deny though, that with Conor comes an evolution of the game. He has raised the bar when it comes to fight marketing, and is a leading example of how fight preparation is progressing.

Featherweight champion Jose Aldo (left) in action (Josh Hedges/ Zuffa LLC)

I usually have a pretty confident pick by this point, but I need to see the weigh-in footage and maybe re-watch some of their older fights again before I back a winner. No matter how you are calling this fight though, you can’t deny that the alternative is still a strong possibility. I fear that we will only see this match up one time, so to be anywhere other than tuned in and watching live, would be a travesty.

The full UFC 194 card will be broadcast live on BT Sport 1 from 1am on Sunday morning. Tweet your predictions to @DanHardyMMA