Tag: Chris Van Heerden

Conor McGregor’s Top 10 Most Controversial Moments

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life personality has played a major role in helping him rise to fame and fortune on a scale never seen before in MMA, but it’s also led to a series of highly contentious flashpoints during his five-year stint in the UFC. In this article, we’ll count down McGregor’s top 10 […]

The post Conor McGregor’s Top 10 Most Controversial Moments appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life personality has played a major role in helping him rise to fame and fortune on a scale never seen before in MMA, but it’s also led to a series of highly contentious flashpoints during his five-year stint in the UFC.

In this article, we’ll count down McGregor’s top 10 most controversial moments, and in the process demonstrate how he has the perfect nickname for a fighter, given that he seems to be becoming more “Notorious” with each passing day.

No. 10: Homophobic Slur in Poland

McGregor showed up to cheer on his teammate Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 118 in Gdansk, Poland back in October, and was soon making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The lightweight champion cut an animated figure during Lobov’s fight with Andre Fili, pacing around the Octagon and yelling instructions to his team-mate, causing such a commotion in the process that referee John Goddard took the unprecedented step of momentarily stopping the fight to order the Irishman back to his seat.

McGregor obliged, but backstage after the fight, the cameras were rolling as he was overheard repeatedly calling Fili a “f**g*t” while consoling the defeated Lobov – a slur that would soon go viral amid accusations of homophobia.

Whether a coincidence or not, McGregor’s media appearances to promote his new ‘Notorious’ documentary were drastically scaled back after this incident, though he did issue a public apology during an interview on The Late, Late Show just a few days later.

“I’m human, I slip up, I say stupid things every damn day. All I can (do) is hold my hand up and apologise if anyone was offended,” McGregor said on the Irish chat show.

The post Conor McGregor’s Top 10 Most Controversial Moments appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Mayweather’s Trainer: McGregor Sparring Footage Could Be Staged

Conor McGregor could be playing mind games with Floyd Mayweather ahead of their August 26th boxing bout, after footage leaked of the Irishman’s sparring session with Chris Van Heerden earlier this year – that’s according to Mayweather’s own trainer, Nate Jones. McGregor and Mayweather have been rumored to be fighting for nearly a year now, […]

The post Mayweather’s Trainer: McGregor Sparring Footage Could Be Staged appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Conor McGregor could be playing mind games with Floyd Mayweather ahead of their August 26th boxing bout, after footage leaked of the Irishman’s sparring session with Chris Van Heerden earlier this year – that’s according to Mayweather’s own trainer, Nate Jones.

McGregor and Mayweather have been rumored to be fighting for nearly a year now, but only this month did UFC President Dana White and The Money Team (TMT) strike a deal to officially make the fight a reality. Now the two biggest figureheads in combat sports will be going face-to-face on August 26th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Recently, one of “Money’s” many trainers, Nate Jones, took to Submission Radio to comment on the mega-bout between Mayweather and McGregor, and touched on the sparring footage that leaked out of “Notorious” and boxer Chris van Heerden. Jones said that after he saw the footage he believes that it all could have been staged (quotes via MMA Mania):

“I think I’ve seen that sparring. First of all, like I said, I looked at it, but to me it looked (like) it’s a possibility it could be staged. We don’t fall for that, we prepare for anything. Please believe me, I looked at it and I came up with my opinion that it could have been for real but it could have been staged. I don’t know. His style is a different style from Floyd. I don’t want nobody messing with Floyd. He may be more difficult than Floyd’s gonna be for him. Styles make fights. He may give him a different look inside this ring when he’s sparring him than what Floyd’s gonna give him. We don’t take none of that light. That’s a different man. That man’s name does not start with Floyd Mayweather, so we’re not worried about that. We’re gonna train hard. ”

“I looked it and after a while I watched the whole entirety of it, but I know that it could be staged and that don’t mean anything. We’re not gonna take that lightly. That don’t mean nothing to us. I looked at it, but it don’t mean anything. We’re gonna train like never before. I don’t think Floyd looked at it cause he don’t do that. We’re not worried about that, we don’t worry about that. When you look bad, it don’t matter to us because they could be staged. He might get in the ring with somebody else and they could be staged, or it could be him. We’re just going to see what’s going to happen on August 26th when he’s lined up with the very best. We’ll see then.”

The post Mayweather’s Trainer: McGregor Sparring Footage Could Be Staged appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Boxing Champ Accuses McGregor Of Editing Sparring Footage

Ahead of his UFC 202 rematch bout with Nate Diaz, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is doing everything he can to better prepare himself in a second go-around with the Stockton native in August, and that includes brushing up on his boxing ability. McGregor recently held a training session with former boxing champion Chris Van

The post Boxing Champ Accuses McGregor Of Editing Sparring Footage appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Ahead of his UFC 202 rematch bout with Nate Diaz, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is doing everything he can to better prepare himself in a second go-around with the Stockton native in August, and that includes brushing up on his boxing ability.

McGregor recently held a training session with former boxing champion Chris Van Heerden in May while rumors where running rampant on a possible ‘Boxing vs MMA’ fight between Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and McGregor:

“Conor comes with a boxing background. I was surprised how well he could handle it. His boxing is really not bad. I’d say after a full training camp where the focus is 100% boxing, he might just shock a lot of boxing fans,” Van Heerden said.

Van Heerden also gave some constructive criticism to the Irishman on what he could improve on to better develop his boxing technique:

“I’d say he needs work on his footwork. Placing of feet and balance and knowing when to throw the right punch; not just throw anything out there.

He has a very good eye for timing and counter punching. I can tell you this, he will give a few boxers out there a really good go.”

The following video is the sparring session that went down between McGregor and Van Heerden:

Now Van Heerden has taken to Twitter to accuse McGregor of editing the video to make himself look better:

CmnORwNWAAA4f65.0Van Heerden later admitted he may have spoke prematurely and apologized for his comments:

McGregor will meet Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 202 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 20, 2016.

The post Boxing Champ Accuses McGregor Of Editing Sparring Footage appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Boxing Champ Talks Sparring Session With McGregor

With speculation on a possible ‘MMA vs Boxing’ bout between UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather running rampant, the fighting community went wild when footage surfaced of McGregor engaging in a sparing session with boxing veteran Chris Van Heerden. In a recent interview with FightHype.com, Van Heerden commented on McGregor’s boxing ability:

The post Boxing Champ Talks Sparring Session With McGregor appeared first on LowKick MMA.

With speculation on a possible ‘MMA vs Boxing’ bout between UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather running rampant, the fighting community went wild when footage surfaced of McGregor engaging in a sparing session with boxing veteran Chris Van Heerden.

In a recent interview with FightHype.com, Van Heerden commented on McGregor’s boxing ability:

“Conor comes with a boxing background. I was surprised how well he could handle it. His boxing is really not bad. I’d say after a full training camp where the focus is 100% boxing, he might just shock a lot of boxing fans,” Van Heerden said.

009_Conor_McGregor.0.0Van Heerden also gave McGregor some constructive criticism, giving the 145-pound champ tips on what he should work on to improve his boxing technique:

“I’d say he needs work on his footwork. Placing of feet and balance and knowing when to throw the right punch; not just throw anything out there.

He has a very good eye for timing and counter punching. I can tell you this, he will give a few boxers out there a really good go.”

While McGregor is well known for his powerful left hand, Van Heerden was not too impressed with the Irishman’s power:

“We were sparring with 16-ounce gloves. It’s like pillows (laughing), so it’s hard to tell. I was not at any point shocked.

Maybe I did expect a little more power. I will say this, Conor can throw and he has a puncher’s chance. He might just land on the spot once and it could mean trouble. But Floyd is TBE, 49-0 for a reason.”

Van Heerden then gave his two cents on McGregor’s chances inside the ring against Mayweather:

“After a good clean-up on skill, he will be in there for a few rounds, but the truth is Floyd will have his way. He is the master of boxing. No one beats Floyd.”

While both sides continue to tease the rumored boxing bout, neither McGregor nor Mayweather have yet to confirm anything as of now. You can check out McGregor’s sparing session with Van Heerden bellow:

The post Boxing Champ Talks Sparring Session With McGregor appeared first on LowKick MMA.