Irish knockout artist, Conor McGregor, is set to scrap with The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 14 winner, Diego Brandao, this upcoming Saturday afternoon (July 19, 2014) in the main event of UFC Fight Night 45, which takes place at 02 Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
McGregor might just be the most "Notorious" Featherweight in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Not for his accomplishments in the division, as the Irishman has only fought twice inside the Octagon (and one performance was fairly lackluster). Despite this, McGregor -- through brash promotion and aggressive claims -- has managed to not only make a huge name for himself, but do it from the sidelines while healing a knee injury.
On Saturday, McGregor will have a chance to prove that a portion of the hype is justified against an extremely dangerous Brazilian in front of McGregor's home crowd.
Does he have the mixed martial arts (MMA) skills to live up to his word?
Let's find out:
Striking
A national boxing champion with a karate stance, McGregor is one of the more unique strikers in the sport. With twelve of his fourteen victories coming via knockout, it's clear that the Southpaw has some serious power as well.
McGregor is essentially an aggressive counter striker. He pushes forward and threatens his opponent with punches and kicks, then slips and counters whenever his foe comes back. What makes his attack special is the diversity of strikes he uses while pushing forward and just how well he does every part of this style.
In his last bout against Max Holloway, McGregor seriously increased his volume and diversity of kicks. McGregor's long pushed his opponent back with a high kick and some occasionally spinning moves, but in the past he didn't seem to have a plan with the kicks. Against Holloway, McGregor repeatedly landed dozens of lead leg techniques, such as stomp kicks, side kicks, and even hook kicks. By the end of the first round, McGregor had "Blessed" pausing at his every feint; Holloway did not know what McGregor was going to throw next or how to defend it.
McGregor often attacked with a jumping switch kick, which built of the lead leg attacks he was throwing. By lifting his lead leg and bouncing forward, he forced Holloway to cover up or raise a leg to check. Regardless of what Holloway did, McGregor switched to his left kick in mid-air, drilling a power kick into Holloway's body or head.
Speaking of McGregor's left high kick, it's one of his best techniques. McGregor throws it with very little prior movement and does not lose his balance as he throws, which allows him to throw the technique often and be ready to counter if his opponent comes back with punches. To land the strike, McGregor uses the threat of his straight left to lead his opponent into the high kick and vice versa. Additionally, McGregor will sometimes throw a high step knee rather than the kick.
Finally, McGregor has a very nice front kick. McGregor digs the kick into his opponent's body or shoots it up towards the jaw. The kick pushes his opponent back out of range, which often causes fighters to look to reenter the boxing range quickly.
When they do, McGregor has a counter waiting.
Unlike some counter fighters, McGregor is fairly willing to lead with punches as well. McGregor's left straight, which is extremely accurate due to his mastery of distance, is often shot out towards the head or body and sometimes doubled up. McGregor will throw the 1-2 occasionally and does use a very nice lead hand uppercut to left hand combination quite often.
Once his opponent comes after McGregor with a combination, he really starts to shine. The first couple times, McGregor will simply bounce back a step, letting his opponent safely miss. Then, he'll plant his feet, slip his head to the inside, and fire off a powerful straight left.
In his fight with Brimage, McGregor showed his ability to adjust. The two were trading evenly in the first 50 seconds or so. Then, McGregor switched up his attack and started throwing a power uppercut counter at the shorter fighter. After it landed hard once, McGregor immediately started feinting with the shot. Now Brimage was playing McGregor's game, and he did not last another 30 seconds.
Defensively, McGregor is not impossible to hit. His distance control is usually enough to avoid most strikes, and the threat of his counter punches also deters his opponent. However, McGregor does keep his hands low and his chin fairly high, meaning that if he doesn't move his feet or slip, he's very open to being punched.
Wrestling
Thus far in his MMA career, McGregor has shown some pretty solid wrestling that very much relies on his athleticism. It also helps that McGregor's dangerous striking forces his opponent to hold his hands high, allowing McGregor easier access on his foe's hips.
McGregor has a very nice power double leg. He can either attack with it as a reaction when his opponent pushes forward or land it after cornering his opponent into the cage. McGregor's physical strength really helps him here, as none of his past opponents have been able to match his physicality during grappling.
McGregor has also landed a couple nice single leg takedowns in his career, including one on Max Holloway. After getting in on the single, McGregor likes to finish by running the pipe.
Though McGregor has yet to face a true grappling specialist, he has showed very nice takedown defense so far. Not only does he have a very strong sprawl, but his wrestling against the cage is very technical. It also helps that it's very difficult to get close to McGregor on the feet, which obviously impedes his opponent's takedown attempts.
In addition, McGregor is excellent at making his opponent pay for his takedown attempts. Whenever a fighter shoots on McGregor, the Irishman lands hard punches to the body or digs elbows into the side of the head. He'll also try to reverse the shot after he sprawls out on it, which can be extremely demoralizing.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
A purple belt in jiu-jitsu, one of McGregor's main training partners is expert grappler and UFC welterweight standout, Gunnar Nelson. Though there's not a lot of footage of McGregor grappling -- and almost zero recent footage of him on his back -- I have been very impressed with what I've seen.
The best part of McGregor's grappling is his guard passing. He's very heavy from top position and really weighs on his opponent using the head and arm control grip. Once he gets to half guard, he'll apply heavy shoulder pressure and cut through the guard. After he gets around the guard, McGregor does not settle, as he likes to slide his knee across the stomach for the mount.
In his sole submission victory, McGregor showed nice back control and excellent grappling instincts prior to locking in the rear naked choke. Overall, McGregor seems to favor chokes quite a bit. He's both dropped for guillotines and used one to pass, hunts for the arm triangle choke often (which actually lead to the rear-naked choke), and I'm very confident that he was setting up an arm-in north-south choke against Holloway a couple times.
It's not much, but McGregor's grappling certainly seems to be on the right path. If we're lucky, more might be uncovered during his fight on Saturday.
Best Chance For Success
Brandao may not have consistent success inside the Octagon, but he does have the most power, best wrestling and strongest jiu-jitsu of anyone who McGregor has faced to date. He also fights like a wild animal, which is always dangerous.
To beat Brandao, McGregor needs to really focus on his kicking early. His goal should be to keep Brandao far, far away early. Keeping Brandao well out of boxing range will provide two main benefits for the Irishman.
First, any lunging shots will be so very obvious that McGregor will have plenty of time to get out of the way or set up a counter. And second, there's a chance that Brandao will try to fight patiently.
Brandao is not good at pacing himself -- he basically tires out at the same pace but reduces his chance of the early finish. Letting Brandao tire himself would keep McGregor much safer, as well as make counters easier to land.
Will McGregor land the knockout in front of his home crowd or will Brandao pull off a major upset?