Conor McGregor stepped into the Octagon against Marcus Brimage as one of the best but unknown European prospects the UFC could find.
It took him just one minute and seven seconds to justify the signing. It took him just a few minutes into the post-fight press conference to make the rest of us want to watch him fight again, giving birth to the hype that took the MMA community by storm.
He kept the hype alive with victories against Max Holloway and Diego Brandao.
At that point, most of us were intrigued, and about half of us were convinced—it was time to put this brash Irish featherweight in the cage with a worthy opponent.
In stepped Dustin Poirier to be that worthy opponent. He was supposed to help most of us decide whether the flashy, confident McGregor was the real deal. As it turns out, he is—and it didn’t even take him two minutes to prove it.
Even after seeing his hand raised as the dominant victor over a top-five opponent, some still question how high a ceiling McGregor has. We’ll find out soon, especially considering Dana White‘s already pegged him as the next in line for a shot at featherweight gold.
“Here’s the thing: If you go down the list, every one of those guys has fought Jose Aldo already. Conor (McGregor) hasn’t,” White told UFC.com‘s Matt Parrino. “So who do you line up next for the champ other than Conor (McGregor)? Everybody else has fought him.”
Win or lose in the fight for the title, he’ll likely find himself sharing the Octagon with other top-five featherweights. How will he fare? Scroll on as we speculate.