5 ONE Championship strikers who could go toe-to-toe with Conor McGregor

#4. Conor McGregor vs. Dagi Arslanaliev

Conor McGregor would definitely have problems inside the cage against Saygid Guseyn 'Dagi' Arslanaliev, considering the ONE star's most recent outing. Despite being a jiu-jitsu national champion, Dagi has evolved his game into a brawling, blood-and-gut style of striking.

Not only does he have a granite chin, Dagi also has the power to give anyone a run for their money inside the cage. Dagi's shattering power and swarming flavor of boxing are similar to Dustin Poirier, who is famous for beating McGregor twice last year.

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Dagi's 2021 Fight of the Year bout against the aforementioned Nastyukhin raised a lot of eyebrows to the skill and finishing ability of the Dagestani. Considering McGregor's history with Dagestani fighters, this bout already has a story that could build hype around it.

#3. Conor McGregor vs. Thanh Le

ONE Championship's 155-pound champion Thanh Le is a knockout artist with a style similar to that of McGregor. He fights southpaw and uses fluid striking and superb distance management to pick his spots and land his fight-ending punch.

That's straight out of McGregor's playbook.

A Le versus McGregor fight has the makings of a technical chess match that would stay 100% on the feet. Exhibiting power in both hands, Le switches stances often to confuse his opponents. He also has kicks in his arsenal that have finished quite a few of his opponents.

In the past, Conor McGregor has faced elite strikers like Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier and Max Halloway. Most of them, however, are swarmers who use volume punches to end fights.

The former two-division UFC champion has not faced a technical, sniper-like striker like Le, a man who is almost mirror-like style-wise. That would make this fight very compelling to watch.

Watch Le's striking highlight reel in this YouTube video:

About the author

Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

Emelianenko finds himself right at the top of Duane’s Mt. Rushmore of MMA fighters, alongside other big names like Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

Duane’s love for the sport is reflected in his writings, where he believes in speculating but not insinuating. He uses his intensive knowledge and skills in MMA to provide unique insights to the readers, along with sourcing information only from reliable sources.

Outside of work, Duane enjoys martial arts training, visual arts, film criticism, video games, and creative writing.

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Edited by Harvey Leonard