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Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor’s reach was a talking point back in 2015 when he fought at featherweight, where most fighters were significantly smaller in size compared to the SBG Ireland standout.
Conor McGregor has a reach of 74 inches, which is impressive given his height and body type.
For the uninitiated, a fighter’s reach is the distance between the tips of his middle fingers when both arms are raised at shoulder height parallel to the ground.
While Conor McGregor still has a slight one-inch reach advantage over the top five lightweights with an average reach of 72.8 inches, it turns out that the numbers can be misleading at times.
Conor McGregor, who is no longer in the lightweight rankings, has a higher reach than former foe and No.2-ranked Dustin Poirier (72 inches), No.3-ranked Justin Gaethje (70 inches), No.4-ranked Beneil Dariush (72 inches), and the champion Islam Makhachev (70.5 inches).
His next opponent, No.5-ranked Michael Chandler (71.5 inches), also loses out to him in the reach department. The two are currently pitted against each other as coaches on the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter and are scheduled to fight later this year.
Out of the top five lightweights, only No.1-ranked Charles Oliveira’s 74-inch reach matches with that of McGregor.
McGregor even bests fighters from higher weight classes.
He disclosed that his UFC return will be at 170 lbs. At welterweight, he matches the champion Leon Edwards (74 inches) and falls 2 inches short of former titleholder Kamaru Usman (76 inches).
Conor McGregor’s reach is not the sole reason behind his success
Although reach has always been considered one of the best attributes for Conor McGregor, it is the effective use of the attribute that has made him successful in his storied MMA career. McGregor is long, and he fights long. The Irishman is known for controlling the striking range by using his reach and footwork to stay out of harm’s way.
Although McGregor does not have a pronounced reach advantage over most of the fighters in the top five of UFC’s lightweight division, it does not necessarily hurt the Irishman’s chances against them because none of those fighters is known for fighting at length.
However, reach in MMA is still calculated based on the criteria that are more suitable for the sport of boxing where kicks are not allowed. MMA is laced with a much wider variety of attacks ranging from punches to kicks and knees to elbows as well as an entirely different world of grappling.
Arm reach in MMA is all but a small fraction of any fighter's arsenal and does not always affect the fight's outcome because it is maximized or minimized based on factors like the fighter's stance, leg reach, and body type.
