Conor McGregor has quickly become one of the most recognized and universally respected sporting figures in recent times. His meteoric climb to fame and success has been well documented and followed by MMA/UFC and sporting fans in general all around the world.
McGregor’s legend has grown phenomenally in nine years. He has fought in two different weight divisions and held the UFC Interim Featherweight Championship and is the current holder of the UFC Featherweight Championship.
It’s not just his fighting style that has captivated the world though. It is his trash talk and theatre leading up to his fights. It has almost got to the point that the only thing better than a Conor McGregor fight is the hype that precedes it.
McGregor’s stats
McGregor, aka. The Notorious, is a 27 year old professional MMA fighter hailing from Dublin, Ireland. He stands 5’9″ or 175 cm with a southpaw stance, weighs 77 kilograms and has an arm reach of 74″ or 188cm and a leg reach of 40″ or 101cm.
He trains in Iceland with John Kavanagh, his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu trainer, Owen Roddy, his striking trainer, Johnny Dargan, his Taekwondo trainer, Ido Portal, his movement trainer and Sergey Pikulskiy, his wrestling trainer.
McGregor began his MMA career in 2007, aged 18, in an amateur bout that he won by TKO in the first round. He turned pro immediately after that fight and hasn’t looked back since.
His pro career has seen him with a record of 19 wins from 22 fights: 17 of those wins were by knockout, one through submission and one via decision. Thirteen of his wins have occurred in the first round. Throughout his career, McGregor has fought across two different weight divisions: featherweight and lightweight.
Biggest fights
The biggest fights of McGregor’s career are undoubtedly his four title fight victories, closely followed by the spectacle of UFC196.
In June 12, 2012 McGregor won his first title: the CWFC Featherweight Championship. McGregor defeated Dave Hill in the second round of this fight through a rare rear naked choke submission win for McGregor.
New Years eve, 2012 saw McGregor face off against Ivan Buchinger for the CWFC lightweight Championship. It only took McGregor three minutes and 40 seconds to defeat Buchinger by a KO to claim the title.
July 11, 2015 was the eve of McGregor’s first UFC title shot. McGregor beat Chad Mendes by TKO at UFC189 in the second round to claim the Interim UFC Featherweight Championship.
McGregor’s next big win and one of his most spectacular came at UFC194 on December 12, 2015 when he knocked out Jose Aldo 13 seconds into the first round to claim the unified UFC Featherweight Championship.
The biggest fight of McGregor’s career came in the form of UFC196. Originally billed to fight UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael dos Anjos this was to be McGregor’s attempt to become the first man in the UFC to be a dual-weight champion. Instead dos Anjos broke his foot during training and pulled out of UFC196. Nate Diaz stepped into the bout with 11 days notice, instantly turning the fight into a welterweight bout.
Diaz was long odds to overcome McGregor, who at that time was undefeated in the UFC. His lack of preparation for the bout was assumed to work against him. Diaz surprised the world when he defeated McGregor through a rear-naked choke submission.
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of McGregor’s biggest strengths is his striking ability, this is in no doubt thanks to his early training as a boxer. Seventeen of his 19 wins have been won by KO or TKO. His striking ability is so clean, crisp and strong that 13 of his wins have come in the first round – something to take note of when placing a bet.
McGregor’s biggest weakness and vulnerability is to submissions, with all three of his losses through submission: one rear-naked choke, one knee-bar and one arm-triangle choke.
When betting on McGregor these are things to take into consideration: a first round knockout bet in favour of McGregor wouldn’t be the stupidest bet to make or the fight being won by KO or TKO from punches. However if you have a bad feeling that McGregor may be about to go down, losing by submission would be the smart bet going by his history.
UFC200 controversy
Ahead of UFC200 which was to see his rematch against Nate Diaz, McGregor refused to attend promotion for the event. This lead to UFC boss Dana White striking McGregor from the event altogether.
This lead to McGregor announcing his instant retirement from MMA.
A couple of days later McGregor released a statement explaining his refusal to attend promotional work ahead of UFC200, his need to train harder, remove distractions ahead of his Diaz re-match and the fact he had not retired.
In yet another twist to the drama he later Tweeted he was back on board UFC200 and thanked UFC supremo, Dana White, for making him a part of the event again.
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