What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Conor McGregor, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor1859 posts

Conor McGregor is an Irish mixed martial artist, born in 1988. He has primarily competed in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
22 Aug, 2017

Bellew: ‘There’s not a chance in hell that McGregor needs just one punch’

Makes StatementWrites Article0 Comments

Boxing champion Tony Bellew writes that McGregor will need multiple effective techniques to beat Mayweather.

The only way I can see Conor McGregor causing trouble is if he jumps on Floyd Mayweather, non-stop punching. That is the only slither of a case I can make for a McGregor win. But, how long could he keep doing that before he gets countered? Getting close in the boxing ring and octagon is completely different. When you get close in the octagon you’re allowed to hit and hold…Looking at the Paulie Malignaggi clips, it looks like McGregor was using a lot of slaps and uppercuts on the inside – that’s not going to work. Mayweather will tuck up and come back fast and vicious. A counter left hook would smash into McGregor’s temple…And on that Malignaggi ‘knockdown’ – it doesn’t matter anyway. That’s sparring…The gym does not mean anything. It gets you ready for when you’re under the lights, that’s it…His punch looked good, straight with some power. But listen, Mayweather is the best ever and McGregor was found out against Nate Diaz in stand-up…Diaz did not stop McGregor on the floor. Yeah, he choked him out, but he got him to the floor by consistently punching him in the face…Are you trying to tell me Conor McGregor hits harder than Alvarez, than Shane Mosley, than De la Hoya, than Hatton – the list is endless. There’s not a chance in hell that McGregor needs just one punch.

22 Jun, 2017

Kavanagh: ‘We’re looking forward to shocking the world’

Writes Article0 Comments

In an article for The42, Coach Kavanagh gives his thoughts on the McGregor-Mayweather fight.

On one of my first trips to Las Vegas with Conor McGregor, probably back in 2014, I recall him mentioning the possibility of a fight against Floyd Mayweather. I stopped doubting him a long time ago at this stage, but I remember at the time laughing it off as nothing more than a novel idea that could never possibly become a reality. Now here we are and it’s just over nine weeks away…We’re in the midst of three good weeks of training here in Ireland, before departing for Las Vegas in mid-July. I believe there will be quite a large media world tour squeezed in there as well.

He talks about the mural:

I wanted to put something suitable on the wall because Conor is a big believer in visualisation and manifesting what you can conceive into reality. That’s the shot we believe will win the fight for Conor and it’s now there for us to see whenever we train.

On strategy:

Mayweather has been in the boxing world for his entire career and everyone he’s faced has moved in a certain way that he’s pre-conditioned to handle. Now he’s going up against a guy who doesn’t follow any set patterns, who can deploy a variety of different styles of fighting and is not one bit intimidated. Conor is — as we all are here — 100% confident in victory. That kind of person is very difficult to deal with…We’re not going over to Las Vegas to make up the numbers on 26 August. When this contest takes place, we’ll be 100% ready — physically and mentally — and nothing other than victory will be acceptable. We’re looking forward to shocking the world — again.

20 Jun, 2017

King: Conor McGregor is a racist bigot

Writes Article0 Comments

In an op-ed in The New York Daily News, Sean King, a Black Lives Matter activist who has come under criticism from some who say he is a white person posing as a person of color, calls McGregor a bigot.

Mayweather and McGregor’s feud was fueled in part by racism. After Mayweather complained in January 2016 that McGregor got favorable treatment because he is white, McGregor responded, “don’t ever bring my race into my success again,” and wrote how Irish people have been “oppressed our entire existence.”…Leading up to his 2015 match against Brazilian fighter Jose Aldo, McGregor repeatedly resorted to disgustingly bigoted attacks. In a reference to colonialism, McGregor said, “If this was a different time, I would invade his favela on horseback and kill anyone that was not fit to work.” McGregor later said, “What I really want to do is turn his favela into a Reebok sweatshop.” McGregor also said of Aldo, in an apparent joke targeting Latinos, “I think I’m going to have him come and clean up my airplane.”Any one of those comments should have been enough to have every mainstream company he works with drop his endorsements. Being a fighter is not a license for bigotry without consequence…In a day and age where we need principled people to speak out on racism, bigotry, and discrimination, Conor McGregor does the exact opposite, instead mainstreaming those things without consequence.

20 Jan, 2017

McGuigan: McGregor lacks financial ability to take on Mayweather

Writes Article0 Comments

McGuigan, currently training Michael Conlan in Las Vegas, writes about the financial aspects of a Mayweather-McGregor fight.

I can understand how Mayweather would be dismissive. Dana White’s guarantee of $50 million split down the middle does not reflect the power or the value of the respective sports. Mayweather would not get out of bed for $25 million, and McGregor’s record purse to date is the $3m banked for his fight against Nate Diaz. Clearly McGregor needs Mayweather more than Pretty Boy needs him. Indeed this is as much a challenge to UFC as it is to Mayweather, with McGregor unhappy with the money that filters down his way from a sport that changed hands for $4 billion dollars last summer. It is a pity McGregor quit boxing in favour of mixed martial arts as a kid in Dublin. You can see just by looking at him that he would have made a decent boxer if he had been exposed to the right environment and given an opportunity to develop.

27 Aug, 2016

Kavanagh wants Alvarez fight next

Writes Article0 Comments

Kavanagh writes an article for The 42, where he talks about UFC 200 and what he would like McGregor to do next.

A lot of Conor’s fights have been short and relatively straightforward — which is great, because those wins are also to be enjoyed — but to see him go 25 minutes and face adversity, especially when so many people expected him to lose, it doesn’t get much better than that when you face those odds and come out with a victory…Where do we go from here? Well, we’re taking a short while to enjoy this victory, first of all, because it’s something we invested a lot in…I think it’s important to enjoy each victory, at least to a certain extent. Conor was actually back doing cardio work less than 48 hours after last weekend’s fight, so the training has continued…From a personal point of view, my own preference would be a lightweight title bout against reigning champion Eddie Alvarez next. Conor can make 145lbs to defend his featherweight belt, absolutely, but I just think 155lbs suits him best. Ultimately that’s Conor’s decision, not mine…If and when that fight is announced, I would be leaning towards a second-round knockout in Conor’s favour.

Kavanagh also says he welcomes the idea of a fight at Croke Park, in Dublin, and that non-US fights should be scheduled for Irish local time.

8 Aug, 2016

Details McGregor training

Writes Article0 Comments

In an article for The 42, Kavanagh details his approach to McGregor’s training.

We’ve been following that pattern now for what feels like a long time — about 19 weeks in total come fight night. Although it seems like it has been a long process, we’re definitely seeing the fruits of our labour. There are certain fitness tests that we have numbers on, and the improvements from when Conor began to where he is now have been dramatic. There’s no comparing this training camp to any we have done previously. I can’t stress enough how different this has been. As many of you will probably already know, routine hasn’t been something you would have associated with Conor’s preparations in the past. But this has been like nothing we’ve done before and it’s going to be a massive help for his next number of fights, not just this one…We’re learning about this art as we go along…I strongly believe that will manifest itself in Las Vegas in 12 days’ time…I’ve often spoken of how drastically Conor improves with each training camp, and while there’s certainly no denying that he gets better for every fight, this has undoubtedly been his biggest leap forward yet…Patience will be essential for Conor in this fight. I’m veering towards a fourth-round finish in his favour, following an opening three rounds which I expect him to dominate in the same manner he did in the first frame of the previous fight.