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Surprising no one other than his doubters, Conor McGregor made a terrific return to the Octagon, last Saturday in Las Vegas, and re-established his claim to the moniker of the 'King' of UFC.
McGregor not only looked and fought 'notoriously', but went on to set a world record as he knocked out Donald Cerrone well within the first round. He became the first person to secure three-division KO victories in Featherweight, Lightweight, and Welterweight.
Previously, he had multiple KO/TKO wins in Featherweight and one in Lightweight on the night of his Championship against Eddie Alvarez, but in Welterweight it was a first KO for him. In the wake of the record, let's take a look at the most important fights of McGregor's career from each of the three weight classes he has fought in.
Conor McGregor in Featherweight
The Irishman started as a Featherweight in UFC and fought most of his fights in that division. In what was McGregor's most impressive performance as a Featherweight, he knocked Jose Aldo out with punches at 13 seconds flat to bag the 145 pounds belt at UFC 194.
Aldo had failed to land even a single proper blow on his opponent when Conor sent him to the ground with his lethal left punch straight to the face. The Brazilian never saw it coming.
McGregor in Lightweight
McGregor had repeatedly expressed his wishes to move up a weight and become a dual-weight Champion. But his plans to own the Lightweight belt got delayed due to a canceled fight with the-then Champ Rafael dos Anjos.
He later did get his chance at it against Eddie Alvarez and used it completely to his favor. However, the Lightweight belt was stripped from him due to inactivity in the division, and McGregor fully intended to win it back at what turned out to be a life-changing bout for him, when he finally returned to the UFC.
The feud between McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov started long before they locked horns in the Octagon in October 2018. The extremely tensed buildup to the bout led to the fight becoming the highest-selling UFC pay-per-view of all times at 2.4 million worldwide.
The bad blood between the two got uglier every day leading up to the fight — physical violence was involved and comments were exchanged throughout. However, inside the cage, it turned out to be Khabib's day as he submitted McGregor with a neck crank hold in the fourth round and defended his Lightweight title.
The loss in this fight and everything that followed proved to be the lowest point of McGregor's fighting career. So far he had the occasional glitches in the career-graph, but it was mostly upward-facing. But now, it pretty much hit the rock bottom in an unfortunate combination of personal issues, injuries and questions being raised about his fighting abilities.
McGregor in Welterweight
McGregor put an end to all the questions and silenced the doubters within 40 seconds of his much-anticipated return to the Octagon.
After a year of hiatus since the Khabib fight, McGregor announced his comeback would take place on January 18 at the Las Vegas event of UFC 246 against Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone, and he did so with a bang. Other than the usual words and rumors, what kindled the fire, even more, is how much in shape McGregor looked as a Welterweight ahead of the fight, as well as at the weigh-ins, where he hit 170 pounds with ease.
The two tangled in a clinch as soon as the whistle went off, and in four back-to-back rarely-seen-before shoulder strikes to the face, McGregor broke Cerrone's nose almost immediately. Next came a ferocious head kick to send him to the ground, and all McGregor needed was a few punches for referee Herb Dean to step in and stop the fight.
With his return complete, McGregor looks forward to feasting on a couple of other Welterweights, or so he said at the post-fight interview. Challenges were thrown at Jorge Masvidal and the Champ Kamaru Usman who were present in the audience, making it obvious that McGregor has his eyes set on the BMF belt and the 170 lbs. title.
