When Conor McGregor was on the come-up in the UFC, laying the groundwork for what would become the most financially successful fighting career in MMA history, he fought all the time.
By the time he moved to 4-0 in the octagon, with a TKO of Dustin Poirier inside of two minutes in September 2014, he only had been competing for the top promotion for 17 months. Fifteen months after that, he flattened longtime featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to become the champion, moving to 7-0 with the UFC.
In contrast, Sunday’s TKO loss to Poirier in the rematch that headlined UFC 257 marked just the sixth MMA bout for the 32-year-old McGregor since that December 2015 knockout over Aldo — with the lucrative boxing match against Floyd Mayweather mixed in.
That level of inactivity doesn’t do fighters any favors, even those who fight less frequently at the championship level as McGregor (22-5, 20 finishes) often has the past five-plus years. All indications entering the fight, which went down at UFC Fight Island from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, were that the former two-division champion trained as hard as ever and was motivated to win.
Training is one thing. Logging cage time is another, which is something McGregor has been unable or uninterested in doing of late. Since losing an October 2018 grudge-match against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, in a bid to reclaim the title he was stripped off due to MMA inactivity, the former simultaneous two-division champion competed for all of 40 seconds before this weekend — scoring a spectacular TKO of Donald Cerrone last January.
Conor McGregor Zuffa LLC“I need activity,” McGregor admitted in the octagon immediately after the loss, which occurred at 2:32 of the second round. “You don’t get away with being inactive in this business.”
Throughout fight week, McGregor assured those who asked that he intended to fight multiple times this year. If he does — he told assembled media later Sunday that he still intends to do so — 2021 would be the first year in which he competed more than once since fighting three times in 2016, which culminated in his lightweight championship victory over Eddie Alvarez at the UFC’s first Madison Square Garden event that November.
McGregor stressed that he did not wish to make excuses for the loss, instead crediting Poirier (27-6, 20 finishes) for effectively neutralizing the Irishman’s lead right leg with calf kicks, a strike that’s become more prevalent vital to many strikers in recent years. It’s a difficult strike to punish, and a fighter like McGregor with a wide stance would figure to be more vulnerable to it.
“My leg is completely dead, even though I thought I was checking them [leg kicks],” he told reporters. “… I didn’t adjust. Fair play to him.”
McGregor has yet to face an opponent who fed him such a steady dose of deadening calf kicks. Nurmagomedov, his only MMA opponent since 2016 to land a strike on him, rarely utilizes kicks. Meanwhile, several UFC bouts were stopped last year because of an accumulation of calf kicks, underscoring their potency.
Even after a first round in which McGregor clearly won on all three judges’ scorecards thanks to outlanding Poirier, 38-22, in total strikes, according to UFC Stats, the effect of the nine leg kicks Poirier landed in the initial five minutes was visible. The outside of McGregor’s right calf had turned red. Even after early success, Poirier managed to get heavy hands on him as the midway point of the second approached. From there, he swarmed with a flurry of punches against a dead-legged opponent who was all but helpless to stop the onslaught. A crisp right hook from Poirier square to McGregor’s face sent him to the canvas and forced referee Herb Dean to call it.
McGregor, who mused after the fight of exploring a different stance that might account better for calf kicks, said an inability to properly combat that particular strike was his undoing.
“I didn’t adjust, and that’s that,” McGregor said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
If McGregor stays true to his word and competes again this year, there’s no shortage of fights available in what is perhaps the premier division in the sport: the UFC lightweight class. The option of capping a long-gestating trilogy against Nate Diaz still exists. Top 155-pounders coming off of losses include Justin Gaethje, Tony Ferguson and Dan Hooker — who was TKO’d in half a round by newly signed Michael Chandler immediately before Sunday’s man event.
Ultimately, McGregor admitted that the cost of his inactivity was “the whole shebang” and spoke highly of Poirier’s experience and activity over the years — nine fights, all against high-ranked opponents, over the past four years.
“He fought a good fight, an experienced fight,” McGregor said. “He’s been in here a lot.”
