Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports.

Don’t Have Any Doubts Over How Serious Conor McGregor is About Reconquering the Lightweight Division… He’s Posted a Stark Warning to the 155lb Roster on Instagram… 

The message from many fans is that Conor McGregor has been found out and has lost his hunger. After losing convincingly to Khabib Nurmagamedov last October, and getting outboxed by Floyd Mayweather in 2017, it’s easy to forget just how good the former double champion really is.

Who can forget how he dissected Eddie Alvarez in his last MMA fight before this, back in 2016? It was a sublime performance, where he dropped the Philidelphia fighter multiple times, before finally finishing him in the second round. Then before that were the two wars with Nate Diaz, at welterweight, the second of which he managed to grind out a tight decision.

Don’t doubt that he still has the hunger to be on top of the pile. McGregor is training hard for a comeback – expected to be against Donald Cerrone – but is ready to fight anybody to get another shot at Khabib Nurmagamedov. Now, he’s written a long message to his critics and sent the lightweight division a brutal message that he’s on his way back.

Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports.

Attack

McGregor’s ground game has long been considered his weakest link – both in terms of attack and defense. The only times we’ve seen him bring the fight to the ground was against Max Holloway in 2013, after he injured his knee, and in a moment of poor judgement against Nate Diaz, after which he was swiftly submitted. He’s working on his ability to attack from the bottom. ‘The Notorious’ wrote:

“My attacking game is still catching up as you can see here. Loose arm drags and overeagerly jumping to hooks and losing position. But I am gaining good traction again. My passing and my overall forward pressure is building nicely.
I will keep building. For I am a brick wall.

Before I went into my last camp I was doing extensive work in the gi and my attacking game was developing really well. My submissions were becoming a lot more frequent. I was supremely confident in my attacking. I could spend full rounds attached to the back. Through all ranges. Snatching the neck. Breaking posture. Generally mauling anything I touched.”

Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez, USA TODAY Sports.

Defence

You can’t say McGregor doesn’t admit where he goes wrong. He admitted that he focused too much on defence when it came to his ground-game preparation for Khabib Nurmagamedov. In fairness though, that’s a natural thing to do against a guy who is renowned for his ability to drag you to the mats and maul you. He wrote:

“For some reason though, I went into camp and focused solely on defense. I trained to disengage. To Anti grapple. To Avoid. I disrespected my own attacking game and became a stranger to it, I allowed outside influence filter into my own thinking. I can pull a dead horse out of a ditch if I latch around it’s head why would I not snatch up the neck? Why would I disengage?

Why would I avoid anything? I don’t know what I was thinking back then. But I am thinking clear now. I will not make that mistake again. I am going to literally tear these men apart now. Watch me. One by f**king one.”

Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports.

Rematch?

It truly seems like the fire is back in the Irishman’s belly. Unlike when he was defeated by Nate Diaz, he hasn’t pushed for that immediate rematch against Khabib. He would prefer to get another fight under his belt first and create some momentum. If he loses his rematch against ‘The Eagle’ straight away, his career will never recover.

This is a game of high stakes that McGregor is playing. Don’t look away now.

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