Without any doubt, Conor Notorious McGregor is the one who took UFC – Ultimate Fighting Championship – and MMA – Mixed Martial Arts – to the next level.
He did this by showing his performances in the octagon along with his trash-talking and garbage uttering during the press conferences.
Before Conor brought hype in MMA, Boxing was in the limelight in the combat sports where there Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Saul Canelo Alvarez were ruling. But, Conor McGregor brought Mixed Martial Arts to the mainstream where it is going parallel to Boxing and other Combat Sports.
Let’s see how a former Plumber changed his field and earned a name – good and bad – in the combat sports.
Let’s have a look at his fighting style, strikes landing record, Flaws in his game, and the coaches who are aiding him in different departments. Furthermore, we will discuss how his alias name matches his personality. Let’s go.
Fighting Style of Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor is a come forward fighter who kept chasing his opponents through the ring. He likes to stand in the middle of the octagon to exchange strikes with his opponents.
His main power source is his left hand.
He lands power strikes with his left hand because he fights with the southpaw stance where the left hand is kept behind, and the right one works as the lead hand to keep the opponents at bay.
Conor tries to stay behind the jabs and lands the power shots; especially his signature punch, the left cross to ear.
Since he is practicing boxing when he was 12, so this is the game he mostly implements during his Mixed Martial Arts fights.
Conor Mcgregor tries to manage safe distance and fights and outside fight to avoid counter strikes.
He occasionally throws some kicks as well, but he is not really good at this.
Conor created a unique fighting style where he mixes Karate with boxing.
He stands with bended knees and keeps the lead leg near to the opponents while keeping his weight at the back foot and hip.
Whenever the opponents try to land a strike at the front leg, Conor pulls it back or lifts it in the air, and after dodging this strike, he throws his counter strike or a flurry of strikes; usually, a power punch or combinations of punches.
Fake reach for check the distance
Conor fakes the reach by showing himself out of range, to do this, he throws a fake jab which is never meant to land while pulling his hip back, and this creates an illusion that Conor is out of reach, as he could not land a shot from this distance but suddenly, he lands a stunning one from the same distance, this time not pulling his hip back but shifting all the weight on the front foot to make it a more devastating punch.
Conor Mcgregor striking accuracy
Conor’s striking accuracy is 49% as he has thrown 1100 significant strikes during his professional career, and he landed 543 from those shots.
During his 26 professional fights, eight times he attempted takedowns, five of which were successful and three were nullified by the opponents.
Furthermore, he lands 5.43 significant strikes per minute which means, he lands 27.15 power shots during a round and 135.75 through a fight of five rounds.
As I said, he likes to trade the power shots, which is shown by his significant strikes absorbing per minute that is 4.40 strikes.
He attempts one takedown in a fight because his takedown average is 0.75 during the bout of 15 minutes.
Although he is a brown belt holder under the tutelage of a renowned coach, still he never tried for submission because he is a slugger and counter puncher.
The only win by a submission came by a chance when he Finished Dave Hill and finished him via a Rear Nake Choke at the end of the second round during the 47th event of the Cage Warriors in Dublin, Ireland back in 2012.
Conor McGregor Reflexes
Conor has great reflexes as he has avoided 55% of the significant strikes thrown at him.
Furthermore, he avoided 70% of the total takedown attempts at him.
He has got a great left hand, and it shows on his resume, as he lands averagely 1.95 knockdowns during a fight and his average fighting time is 8 minutes and 20 seconds.
In his 26 professional fights, he scored 19 knockouts and won one fight by submission, while two times heard the final bell and won every time at the scorecards.
Let us have a look at his strike landing ration in different positions:
From his total of 543 significant strikes, Conor landed 417 strikes in a standing position, which shows him a boxer.
Because in boxing, all the fight happens in the standing position.
He landed 58 significant strikes during clinching with the opponents; this 11% of total strikes shows he is not very good inside fighter.
He could only land 68 strikes while hugging his opponents on the ground that is 13% of total landed significant strikes.
This shows he is not a great ground and pound fighter.
In short, he does not implement Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu during his fights.
Let us see which body spots of the opponents he targets during a bout:
From his total landed strikes, the majority of shots were –283- landed at the heads of the opponents that is 71 percent of the total.
This shows he is a head-hunter and goes for knockouts while targeting the face and the neck of the opponents.
Conor’s favorite strike is a left-hand power punch under the ear of the opponent.
We have witnessed him throwing a punch to the head and rarely going to the body.
His total body shots in 26 professional fights are 92, which is 17 percent of the total.
He landed only 68 strikes to the legs, mostly to keep the opponents at the safe distance to proceed with his outside game, where he lands power shots from the safe zone to score an early knockout.
Conor McGregor’s ways of wins
During his professional career, he shared the ring with 26 opponents and managed to win 22 bouts.
19 of his victories came by way of KOs while his 2 fights went to the scorecards, and he managed to win them both.
Conor won only one fight by submission. This shows he is only a boxer and does not apply Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu during his bouts, although he is a brown belt holder in BJJ.
Amateur Record of Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor appeared in a single amateur fight, and he won by stoppage.
Flaws in his game and techniques of Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor only relies on his power and tries to land the early knockouts within the first two or three rounds.
In case of failing to do so, he starts gassing out due to putting all of his energy in the initial rounds.
He begins to show the signs of fatigue and tiredness during the final two rounds and goes into survival mode where he could only finish the opponents who are more tired or injured.
Otherwise, he becomes more vulnerable and easy to land where opponents can finish him at wish.
Let’s see his two fights where he was gassed out :
1 Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. “The Money Fight” 2017.
In his only boxing match, he faced the former pound for pound king in Floyd Mayweather Jr.
For the first few rounds, Conor was the aggressor and busier fighter in the ring, but after the first three rounds, Floyd took the charge and landed different punches and combos at will.
He kept playing with Conor McGregor through the rounds.
Floyd Kept entertaining the spectators while showing his superior reflexes and kept landed taps of different combinations.
After the first half of the game, Conor was not able to throw punches properly.
In the tenth round, Floyd decided to call it a night and finished the Irishman with some power punches and different combos before the referee waved the fight.
2 Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz I. UFC 196 2106.
Nate Diaz took that fight at the short notice of 13 days only, he kept Conor at distance with his signature Stockton Slap and right hooks. Conor could not perform during the first round and wasted a lot of energy in settlement to southpaw and orthodox style and throwing a lot of shots. In the second round, Conor was out of his gas tank, Diaz took the advantage of this situation and finished the tiring Irishman with a rear-naked choke at the end of the second round.
But in the rematch, Conor avenged this loss after beating Nate Diaz by a Majority Decision.
Coaches of Conor McGregor
Conor started to practice boxing at the age of 12 under the tutelage of someone unknown coach in Ireland.
Now, his boxing trainer is Owen Rowdy Roddy.
Roddy is a former Mixed Martial Artist who was a defensive fighter and won 6 out of his 11 fights via submission.
The head coach of Conor is John Kavanagh, who is also a former MMA fighter and has two other fighters under his tutelage, Makwan AmirKhawani, and Gunnar Nelson.
Both these fighters are technical ones and rarely go for a KO, but they manage to secure their victories via decision or submissions.
These facts show, that Conor McGregor has his own fighting style and is not under the influence of any of his coaches.
He has developed a fighting style that is a mixture of boxing and Karate and he takes the advantage of his extra-long reach and confuses the opponents with his style to finish them within 2 rounds.
John Connor is the Strength and Conditioning Coach of Conor McGregor, but the performances of McGregor show that John lacks in the conditioning department as McGregor fades out in the final two rounds where he becomes more vulnerable to power shots and submission attempts.
Achievements of Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor has won the Fight of the Night Award 2 times, both against Nate Diaz.
One time he managed to win the award of KO of the Night, This happened against Marcus Brimage.
He is the first Simultaneous Milty-division Champion in UFC, he won a belt in the UFC Lightweight division while he was already a champion in the UFC Featherweight class.
He won the Performance of the Night award seven times, five of those seven were back to back which is another record in the history of UFC.
Against Jose Aldo, Conor won the Fastest KO in a championship fight when he finished Aldo within 13 seconds of the opening round.
Why Conor McGregor is called Notorious
Conor Named himself “Notorious” and he proved this during his professional career, especially after coming into the limelight and becoming the biggest star in the UFC.
He started to trash talk with his opponents during the buildups, weigh-ins, and press conferences.
He calls it a part of the business and thinks he sells arenas due to this technique of rubbish uttering.
Conor McGregor has adopted a villain persona in MMA to gain a hate following, this is the same tactics used by Floyd Mayweather Jr where people paid to watch him losing but Floyd never lost a fight; at least officially.
But other than UFC or MMA business, Conor does the same which fits his name very well.
1 Driving offense: Conor pleaded guilty to over speeding on the road of Dublin. He was caught by the cops and was charged accordingly.
2 Messing with an MMA Referee: At Bellator 187, Conor confronted the referee after entering the ring before the results were announced, as we had cover on this article.
3 Attacked Khabib: To buildup hype, before his fight against Khabib the Eagle, Conor Attacked the bus and threw the dolly that broke the window glass and injured 2 fighters.
4 Confronting with a person: In 2019 he was arrested for a robbery when he snatched a phone from a person and smashed it on the ground.
5 Beating an old man: In 2019, he was pleaded guilty to beating a person in a pub in Dublin.
My Considerations on Conor McGregor:
Conor McGregor is a one-dimensional fighter who gets into the skins of his opponents during the press conferences by uttering garbage and doing personal attacks along with racial and unethical comments.
After this, his opponents come into the ring full of heat and mix up with him in the first two rounds.
Since Conor has got great power in his left hand, he lands a few power left crosses and wins by way of a KO.
This is the biggest trap he uses because he can only fight for 2 to 3 rounds only.
One who can handle it all with a calm mood can easily finish him in the late rounds when his gas tank is out and he starts fading.
Khabib style vs Conor Mcgregor fighting style: Consideration and short analysis
Khabib is the only fighter who kept beating him for four rounds before forcing him to quit via a neck crank choke.
This fight is called the biggest fight in the history of the UFC, the pair met in October 2018 where Conor was a top dog and all the odds were in his favor.
Khabib opened the first round by landing a few shots and figuring out what Conor had brought to the table, soon Conor showed all the guns he had in his arsenal and Khabib assessed all the traps and then started pounding the Irishman at will.
He finished the first round by landing more and accurate shots along with takedown.
2 ROUND
In the second round, Khabib planned to face him toe to toe and sent Conor to the canvas with a great right to the jaw; it was the first time McGregor tasted the ground.
Then Khabib kept pounding Conor throughout the four rounds and then Eagle punished him while winning a mount.
To escape the assault, Conor offered his back where Khabib accepted this after seeing Conor can’t handle any further flurry.
Neck Crank Khabib on Conor
Then Khabib applied the Neck Crank, and Conor, who was ready to give it up, took no time to tap it twice.
Hypothetical Method to beat Conor Mcgregor and his fighting style
So as per my opinion, Conor Mcgregor can be beaten easily if the fighter stays at distance in the first two rounds by using his jabs.
Then in the third to the fifth round, a fighter can beat Conor either by a KO or by submission.
But against Conor McGregor, going till the final bell is not in the favor of a fighter.
As we have seen in the Nate Diaz II, Conor won a controversial Majority Decision, because Diaz did enough to secure the fight, especially in the late rounds when Conor was rarely throwing a shot to survive the rounds.
But Judges saw it differently and gave a gifted decision to the friend of Dana White and the former cash cow of The Ultimate Fighting Championship.
CONCLUSION
We arrive at the end of this article; I hope you enjoy it.
I try to put all my effort into finding all the statistics to give you the Conor McGregor fighting style’s maximum quality and information.