Conor McGregor: A Step Ahead of the Fight Game

Storyline: Conor McGregor is an amazing athlete. His opponents never know what to expect or when to expect it. McGregor is a step ahead of the entire fight game. Written by Hector Estremera, Jr., East Hartford, CT.

For all the great athletes and personalities, the UFC has developed Conor McGregor like none other. He’s one of the few fighters who truly sells his own fights. He does it so well that he could be the first MMA fighter who doesn’t need a fight promoter. McGregor has said before that he has plans to make the kind of money high-level boxers are accustomed to making. And, after the UFC 194 main event–and McGregor’s poise during the post-fight conference–it seems he may know what he’s talking about.

Business aspects aside, Conor McGregor is an amazing athlete. His movement and precision is something unseen, yet still somewhat familiar. His opponents never know what to expect or when to expect it. For now it seems that enigma will continue to set him apart. Make no mistake, Jose Aldo is truly gifted, a step ahead of the rest of the featherweight division, but Conor McGregor is a step ahead of the entire fight game.

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McGregors performance at UFC 194 was, as he predicted, “Master Class.” For over a year McGregor has been more than vocal about his belief that he had the tools to defeat Jose Aldo and do it with ease. McGregor taunted that Aldo was  scared to fight him, afraid of what might happen to him. Aldo responded in his usual manner: he would do his talking in the octagon. But little did he know that McGregor would never give him a chance to tell his side of the story.

McGregor has said that he believes every technique has its time and place. His style masterfully combines multiple martial arts and he does everything so seamlessly. The most well-rounded fighters in the world have a tendency to base their style in one thing or another and, then, to develop that technique. By adding things from other martial arts they’re able to create their own dialect of a chosen discipline. But Conor McGregor does all of this so well that he has created his own language.

McGregor’s movement is fluid and loose. He remains balanced and aware of his opponent. And when his left finds the sweet spot, people go to sleep. He’s so confident in his ability that it creates an air of invincibility. McGregor is so vocal about his confidence that most people can’t help but share the sentiment … including me.

Courtesy: USAToday

As McGregor entered the cage at UFC 194, Joe Rogan spoke about how his integration of traditional martial arts keeps his opponents guessing. Rogan also made it clear that he believes McGregor is a master of mental warfare–better than anyone who came before him in relationship to the psychological game. Rogan is absolutely right about that.

Rogan refers to McGregor’s kicks and wide stance, as well as his brash attitude: “What are you gonna do about it?”  Yet, like all magicians, McGregor has a unique ability to get people to look in one place while the magic is happening in another.

McGregors trash talk can be brutal. his confidence in himself is off-putting at times, and he never lets his fighting do the all the talking. He loves to give his mouth a piece of the action because he’s so damn cocky

Right?

Wrong…

McGregor is using one of the oldest fighting strategies– working to defeat his opponents before they even step on the scales. The difference for McGregor is that he’s not just selling a fight or looking for a slight edge in the cage. He’s coming at his opponents with everything he’s got–waiting for the ref to step in. His personality is hyperbole on another level.

If opponents wait he will strike and if they move he will strike harder. He uses his platform to show opponents that he is not a man who will back down. There’s nothing you will say to McGregor that will make him stop talking. He gives you confidence by telling you he has it. He makes you believe him because he tells you he doesn’t care if you do or not; and he lets it be clear he does not care if you believe him. He knows he puts in ALL the work.

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While he does all these things, the “magic” is happening. His confidence entices people, but opponents become trapped in his game. They can’t help but to recognize his cockiness. They listen to him, looking for a weakness to exploit in the cage. And that’s when McGregor pulls the switch.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that Conor McGregor said Jose Aldo would overload a right hand. Overextend on the punch? Catch a left for a knockout? if you didn’t see the fight, let me tell you that’s not at all what happened.

McGregor’s cockiness was to be be his downfall. In trying to predict the finish, McGregor gave Aldo the opening he had been seeking. Overextending on the right is a problem Aldo has had in the past, and he now knew McGregor planned on capitalizing. Aldo made a plan to close that hole while Conor McGregor sat back and watched his plan unfold exactly as intended.

What happened in those short few seconds? Jose Aldo overloaded his right, just as predicted, and McGregor went in for the kill. That’s the scenario Conor had played out, time and time again, leading up to the fight. McGregor waited patiently. He laid all the ground work leading to this moment. As McGregor’s hand snapped away from his hip en route to the finish he predicted, Aldo pulled the right at the last second and launched a left instead.

Feint or hesitation, it didn’t matter, this wasn’t a chin check: it was a checkmate. McGregor’s counterpunch had been launched before the punch he was countering had been thrown. And in a literal blink of the eye it was over.

When Aldo initiated the sequence that ended the fight, McGregor switched gears from loud-mouth antagonist into his traditional martial arts mind-frame. Swiping the air in front of Aldo’s face (as if looking to parry the overloaded right) McGregor loaded up a ‘big left’ just out of sight.

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Conor is a self-described master of human movement, and he used this expertise coupled with perfect timing and unparalleled precision, to see the opportunity he was waiting for. When the moment came, McGregor relied on natural human reflex and used the parry motion to blind Aldo for a split second while he loaded the left and let it go. As Aldo crashed to the ground, McGregor slid across the mat like he was on ice to drop two powerful hammer fists to a rigid Jose Aldo.

McGregor’s smooth motion is a testament–like none other–to his integration of traditional martial arts. For every technique he puts into his arsenal, one piece of this remains constant–human movement. Conor McGregor didn’t base his fighting style in boxing or muy thai. He isn’t a decorated wrestler or a BJJ master. Conor McGregor is a Tai Chi prophet. Seeing every martial art as having potential, McGregor sought out the similarities between them. And while there’s a lot of overlap in martial arts disciplines, very few things remain constant: balance and movement, timing, and precision. 

He has said it himself. His results agree. And I will say it again: this man is operating on another level. The things other fighters have to do to catch up with McGregor are so far from the scope of the rest of today’s MMA that it’s unlikely we’ll see anyone catch up to him.

McGregor can be defeated, but only through attrition. McGregor is a hurricane; his opponents are nothing but men. Though there may be a man brave and lucky enough to run through the storm and survive, but they’ll never BE what he is.

Conor McGregor is a superstar. He’ll be the inspiration for the next generation of MMA fighters–likely be dead and buried, with belts from every promotion of his era, before we see another fighter like him.