Over the past two years, Ireland native Conor McGregor has taken the spotlight in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting. He caught the attention of fans back in 2014 with his win against Diego Brandao and with his winning words: “We’re not here to take part. We’re here to take over.” He has had an impressive record as primarily a champion featherweight of 19-3-0 (Wins-Losses-Draws). Additionally, McGregor has become a bit controversial throughout the years due to his bold speech. The 27 year old has become known for not holding back inside or outside of the cage.
McGregor made his professional MMA debut in March 2008 at Cage of Truth 2, beating Gary Morris with a second-round technical knock-out (TKO). In the following years, he has become extremely popular due to how effortlessly he knocks out his opponents. In 2011, McGregor had an undefeated streak of 14 wins, of which twelve were KO/TKO. Nine took place in the first round. To put that in perspective, it took McGregor less than 5 minutes, the duration of one round, to knockout his opponent. That year in April, he accomplished one of the quickest finishes in MMA history at the Immortal Fighting Championships 4. He struck his opponent Paddy Doherty with his right hand and knocked him out in just four seconds. Doherty would later go on to say, “I’m telling you, I have never been hit like that in my whole life. He put me out in a few seconds. The power that man has is absolutely unreal.”
McGregor is often criticized as well as praised for his fighting tactics. One student who is very passionate about the fighter is senior fan Chris Radke.
“Conor is a genius as far as movement goes,” Radke said. “No other person in the entire mixed martial art game moves like he does,”
McGregor officially signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2013. He is only the second Irish fighter to work for the company. In his first UFC debut against Marcus Brimage, he won through TKO in a little over the first minute of the first round. More recently, he went on to win the Featherweight Championship on December 12th 2015at UFC 194. There, he went head to head against Jose Aldo, who was at the time anticipated to hold his UFC featherweight championship. It would only take 13 seconds for Aldo to be knocked out and for the world of MMA to have a new golden boy.
Radke also remarked that his favorite part of UFC was “the excitement of seeing two people that have drama go at it. It is so entertaining.”
Surprisingly, McGregor lost his next fight against Nate Diaz on March 5 by second round submission. The match had received much attention since McGregor was fighting in a new weight division, in which he jumped from 145 pounds to 170. McGregor ended the night humble about his defeat and proud about the chance he took with the new weight class he entered to fight Diaz.
The “Notorious” McGregor is a man who is never afraid to speak his mind to the press, his fans or the world. Before his fight against Diaz, the two had a press conference where they did not hold back. Diaz repeatedly accused McGregor of using steroids, while McGregor would make fun of Diaz’s physique and call him a “gangsta from the hood.” McGregor also stated: “I don’t care about the belt. All I care about is my checks and my checks are super heavy.” His motivation for money can also be clearly seen on his Instagram (@thenotoriousmma), where he recently posted a picture of millions of dollars and captioned it, “This week’s profit.”
Radke also commented on McGregor’s trash talk.
“I think it’s fantastic. He gets in so many people’s head, he’s a genius for what he does. It’s brilliant,” Radke said.
Despite being often considered overconfident, there is still much to admire about McGregor’s talent in MMA. He has proven time after time that he can go up against any opponent, disregarding their advantages. He has moved his way up in the past two years and is willing to jump weight classes to fight more challenging opponents. The Notorious has definitely fought his way to the top, earning the bold nickname.
