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Conor McGregor appears to have distanced himself from the boxer's stance, putting forth an intense kicking training video ahead of UFC 264.
McGregor took to his official Twitter account and posted a video of him kicking a Muay Thai heavy bag at the gym.
The training video features Conor McGregor hitting the bag with eleven picture-perfect power-leg roundhouse kicks from an orthodox stance and eleven from the southpaw stance. McGregor is seen bouncing around in his signature karate stance rather than a strict boxing stance.
Conor McGregor and professional boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, a veteran southpaw pugilist, had both expressed interest in facing one another in a pro boxing match in 2021.
McGregor purportedly regarded southpaw MMA lightweight fighter Dustin Poirier as an ideal tune-up fight ahead of the boxing match against Manny Pacquiao – a boxing match that would’ve likely been one of the highest-grossing combat sports events of all time.
The UFC 257 lightweight MMA fight against Poirier witnessed McGregor adopting a boxing stance, as opposed to his usual fleet-footed karate stance.
Most MMA experts have often claimed that McGregor’s karate stance leaves him susceptible to leg kicks from an opponent who’d throw them with proper Muay Thai technique. Nevertheless, it was McGregor’s boxing stance that provided Poirier with the opening to land multiple thunderous calf kicks.
Conor McGregor seemed to get the better of most boxing exchanges in round one of their fights, but the tide turned in round two. Poirier’s leg kicks severely compromised McGregor’s mobility. This eventually resulted in a stationary McGregor being trapped alongside the fence where Poirier caught him with a fight-ending barrage of punches and stopped the Irish megastar via TKO.
Conor McGregor was criticized for not properly checking leg kicks due to his overreliance on the boxing stance at UFC 257:
Conor McGregor was subsequently criticized for sticking strictly to a boxing stance in his MMA fight rather than utilizing his usual karate stance or at the very least switching between his boxing and karate stances.
The consensus is that McGregor’s boxing stance disallowed him from properly checking the leg kicks thrown at him by Poirier. This adversely affected his legs and his mobility, which ultimately led to him being knocked out in the UFC 257 matchup. McGregor’s loss resulted in the Pacquiao fight falling apart.
Presently, 'Notorious' and 'The Diamond' are 1-1 in their series of fights. McGregor bested Poirier via first-round TKO in their first fight, a featherweight bout at UFC 178 in September 2014.
Poirier then beat McGregor via second-round TKO in their rematch, a lightweight bout at UFC 257 in January 2021. This was the first TKO loss of Conor Mcgregor's career.
The highly anticipated trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier will take place at UFC 264 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 10th, 2021.
