#5: Conor McGregor
This is not the time to wax lyrical about the fighter we find at number five.
In light of the accusations that have been made about Conor McGregor we at The Fight Site have decided to forgo our usual in-depth gushing over a fighter that is undeniably great at what he does in the cage, and have instead gone for a rather cold and analytical view of what has got him to this spot.
We even discussed omitting him entirely: but these cases are pending, and our list was not.
Also, when assessing the quality of an individual’s achievements, it is the opinion of this writer that you should always try to separate the art from the artist. Thus, an enjoyment of the music of Gesualdo or Charles Manson, or the movies of Roman Polanski is not inherently linked to the abhorrent crimes they committed.
Boxing historians take a similar tact: no list of the all-time great middleweights is without an appearance of Carlos Monzon, and if you were to take a poll on the hardest punchers of the modern era it’s likely you’d see a few votes for Edwin Valero.
Thus, Conor McGregor is good for his spot here at number five. Why he’s here is important now, even if none of us felt very compelled to write about him at this moment in time.
If you’ve been following our series on the twenty greatest mixed martial artists in history, you will no doubt have seen and enjoyed Ed Gallo’s write-ups on Eddie Alvarez, Joseph Benavidez and Dominick Cruz. I have decided to use Ed’s own criteria for ranking fighters in this look at McGregor but with a twist.
See, Ed bases the quality of a win based on how good the opponent was going into and—to some extent—during the fight and then gives the win a subjective ranking out of a hundred. If for some oddball reason you’ve avoided Ed’s write-ups or they’ve not been on your radar thus far (in which case I’d advise you to rethink your radar provider) you can read all of our pieces right here.
I do something a little similar, although I also take into account the manner of victory when assessing how important the fight is to a fighters resume (and therefore, legacy).
So I will take a look at the wins Ed attributed to McGregor as being somewhat legacy-defining, while providing my own ranking taking the manner of victory into account as well.
Before that, Ed kindly provided some words as to why a couple of McGregor’s wins did not make the cut when analysing his resume:
“Two McGregor opponents fans may argue deserve ratings are Diego Brandao and Dennis Siver.
In theory, Brandao should present a strong enough threat in enough phases to warrant a rating. From a physical standpoint, he has explosive power, can hustle when he needs to, and while he lacks impressive durability he isn’t fragile. His strongest point is as a grappler, where his positional, submission and ground and pound threat are worth acknowledging. But the drawbacks of his style drown out the strengths. His Wanderlei Silva-inspired attack on the feet is extremely limited, and he can be scared off it surprisingly quickly. Off the back foot he has no game. While his grappling is legitimately threatening, his wrestling is not a strength as seen in this very fight when he was thrown by McGregor. Worst of all, Brandao will back off and refuse to push his strengths if he’s threatened with pressure and can’t get to his game easily.
If a fighter’s strengths aren’t particularly pronounced, and their ‘B’ game is largely useless, they’re most likely a not a fighter you want to rate. This is what we saw from Dennis Siver when he fought Conor McGregor. Siver’s whole career was based around being a more advanced outfight than most of the rudimentary strikers floating around MMA were used to seeing.
If you take a look at his prime run (2010-2012) the best striker Siver beat was either Diego Nunes or Nam Phan. His signature win over George Sotiropolous was an indictment of his grappling-based foe, whose wrestling looked subpar. Against talented, confident outfighters like Donald Cerrone, Siver was gored to stick to a ranged kickboxing fight, without an advantage.
Against McGregor, you saw the same thing: When pressured, Siver could only back away, and when on the outside, he had one or two good looks but was largely outclassed. His only attempt to change the dynamic of the fight was a truly awful takedown entry. Even if you rate Siver’s striking alone in the high 70s or low 80s (I don’t), his lack of depth and adaptability should take him out of the discussion.”
What Ed says goes. So, onto the wins he has deemed worthy of inclusion.
Quality wins: 2013 Max Holloway (73), 2014 Dustin Poirier (80), 2015 Chad Mendes (92), 2015 Jose Aldo (99), 2016 Nate Diaz (84), 2016 Eddie Alvarez (87)
Quality win total: 6
Average value of quality wins: 86
Big 3: 2015 Jose Aldo (99), 2015 Chad Mendes (92), 2016 Eddie Alvarez (87)
What may stand out here is the high rating of a short-notice Chad Mendes. I am rating based on what I saw from the fighter, and Mendes looked spectacular before being gassed by some of the most brutal body work we’ve seen in the sport. He was two fights removed from the greatest performance of his career against Aldo, and had bounced back by starching a borderline elite in Ricardo Lamas. It was a fantastic win.
Straight off the bat I see little wrong with Ed’s ratings of these wins even taking into account my own personal qualifier, the aforementioned manner of victory.
I would be happy to nudge the Aldo victory one tick higher to a perfect 100: for me, it’s the greatest win in MMA history, an champion who had never lost a title bout, who had shown versatility, resilience and tactical nous completely obliterated in the opening sequence of the bout. If nothing else it demonstrates McGregor as being one of the greatest punchers in the history of the sport. Even though he was stopped twice subsequently, Aldo looked as good as he ever did in his comeback fight against Frankie Edgar (he in fact pieced Edgar up in easier fashion than he had in their first fight, pre-McGregor) and it took a barrage of strikes from Max Holloway to get the job done.
One shot put Aldo out. The follow-up ground and pound might only have stirred him long enough for McGregor to put him to sleep again.
McGregor was clobbered though. It’s crazy to think such a quick blowout victory could not be a 100 rating, but if you’re seeking perfection, getting caught with a left hook in the process of scoring the knockout heard around the world is not quite it. McGregor was cut too, visual evidence to a bout that was all too brief but incredibly violent all the same. Can a fighter avoid being even touched in a fight against an elite fighter anyway? Is a fighter elite if they cannot even touch another elite fighter? In boxing, even so-called punch perfect performances (Examples: Salvador Sanchez-Danny Lopez I, Sumbu Kalambay-Mike McCallum I, Oleksandr Usyk-Murat Gassiev) saw the victor get touched at least once. It’s testament to Aldo’s dangerous nature that he managed to leave a mark on McGregor even when being blasted out in 12 seconds. It’s testament to McGregor’s timing, ability to read a fight and the cannon he possessed in his left hand that this win gets a perfect score.
My rating: 100
I rank the win over a young and still learning Max Holloway slightly higher than Ed, and it’s due to that manner of victory caveat: badly injured, McGregor showed adaptability in moving to a wrestling-centric performance, and although Holloway was not yet the well-rounded all-time great featherweight he would become in time, he wouldn’t lose again for the best part of six years. He would go on to become arguably a greater 145lb champion than McGregor, and a physical and tactical mismatch for nearly every fighter that stood on the opposite side of the cage to him.
My rating: 80
I don’t necessarily disagree with the rest of Ed’s rankings: Poirier was pre-prime but a highly-ranked featherweight and easily dismissed by McGregor, but he would become more technical in time without the arduous cut to 145lbs. McGregor’s gas tank made for a closer fight with Nate Diaz than should have been possible, but given the result in their first fight, Nate’s legendary durability, and McGregor showing bouncebackability the rating seems fair. McGregor was good in the clinch and dropped Nate multiple times, but Nate had fallen short at the top level at both 155 and 170lbs. Not an elite scalp, even though the younger of the Diaz brothers is irrefutably a world class fighter.
The only ratings I really disagree with are of Chad Mendes and Eddie Alvarez.
For me, Chad Mendes coming in at late-notice does diminish the win somewhat, and although Mendes was undeniably a world-class fighter I’m putting him on par with Nate Diaz for being the quintessential bridesmaid: does that mean he doesn’t deserve to be ranked in the 90’s?
A few things: McGregor was also coming in at late-notice in terms of opponent preparation. And there is a definite argument that McGregor’s approach in the second round is what saw Mendes wilt, rather than a last-minute weight-cut. When you take manner of victory into account, McGregor stopped Mendes, and also showed resilience to come back from a torrid first round.
But for me, I can’t shake off the fact that Mendes came in at late notice. Did he only have one strong round in him, or did McGregor take his guts away from him? I can never really ascertain the truth either way, and although Mendes holds up on film as a multi-faceted fighter and an elite talent at times, I simply don’t have as much love for him as my Fight Site cohorts.
My ranking: 85
I’m also wary of Eddie Alvarez’s first round demolition job over Rafael dos Anjos, which seemed to bely the fact that Alvarez was past his prime. I’m very much of the opinion that it flattered him, whilst almost showing off everything that was great about him in his absolute prime.
Watching Alvarez’s maiden defence of the UFC lightweight championship against McGregor, he looks to be in tip-top shape. He also gets absolutely annihilated, showing nothing to suggest he ever had the beating of McGregor. By Ed’s own criteria, in-fight Alvarez showed close to nothing. Is that why he only gets an 87 from Ed?
Taking into account what I’ve said about Alvarez’s post-Bellator form and his inability to get anything done against McGregor, should I even be questioning the ranking?
In my opinion, yes: freed of an increasingly difficult weight-cut, I’d argue that McGregor has never looked better than he did against Eddie Alvarez, even in the Aldo fight which is a small sample size even given the fact that in the opinion of both myself and the greater Fight Site team the Brazilian is an indisputably greater fighter than Alvarez.
McGregor showed poise, he demonstrated pinpoint striking, and he cleared out Alvarez, he even got a round to re-set. A nearly flawless showing, in which any attempt made by Alvarez to change the ebb and flow of the bout was shrugged off by McGregor as being a futile gesture.
Still, I have to remember what I said: Alvarez was not in his prime despite managing what Chad Mendes never did and becoming the beautiful bride, if only just for one night.
My rating: 90
Conclusion
We at The Fight Site would like to apologise: we cannot bring ourselves to write too much about Conor McGregor, or at least lend him the reverence we have to fighters ranked lower than him on this list. We believe in the old saying ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but the serious nature of these allegations mean that at the present time we did not feel comfortable gushing over McGregor’s fighting prowess.
But one thing is certain: he has some stunning achievements in the sport of MMA. A two-weight world champion in two of MMA’s historically deepest divisions with victories over some of the greatest fighters of all time.
You haven’t seen Aldo yet in our rankings, but it’s not a spoiler to tell you that he features. Same goes for Max Holloway. Thus, taking into account Aldo (? but higher than five), Holloway (likewise) and and Alvarez (11) McGregor has victories over a truly astonishing three members of The Fight Site top twenty.
Whatever the outcome of the cases that have come to light in the past few days, Conor McGregor is one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.