Getty Conor McGregor before fighting Donald Cerrone in January 2020.
Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor recently declared that he has the “best ground and pound in the game.”
“Notorious” is currently rehabilitating a leg injury that he sustained in July 2021 when he fought Dustin Poirier in a trilogy match at UFC 264. McGregor has made it clear that he plans on returning to the Octagon later in 2022, and he plans on reversing his fortune and halting his two-fight losing streak.
McGregor made his bold claim via Instagram on February 16, 2022. He broke down why he believes he’s the greaest ground and pounder in the promotion’s history, writing:
I’ve the best ground and pound in the game. My highest % of finishes does not actually come from my standing horizontal back hand, like most assume. My highest % of finishing wins actually come from the accuracy of my vertical punching (you are all novices vertical striking. Arm hitters. Ask ref to stop it hitters. Fall over on yourself hitters). I don’t miss g’n’p. I do not hit arms. I do not fall in.
I hit soft face, head and skull.
It’s how you’ve seen people vs me absolutely cut up. Looking like they’ve just got a bang of a few golf balls off the tee of a driving range. Skin fully opened. Yet me, skin like butter. Many times I’ve not even messed up my hair. That’s why a lot of these rat bags like to hate. I’m smooth like butter with it.
The richest, the baddest, the most unscathed. Anyways rat bags, It’s almost yacht season, or as I like to call it, caramel butter skin season.
He also posted a video of himself hitting a bag on the ground. See below:
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McGregor Is 1-3 In His Last 4 MMA Bouts
Notorious has only tasted success inside the Octagon once in his last four fights: his 40-second destruction of Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in January 2020.
In 2018, McGregor challenged then-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for the belt he never lost in 2018, but the Irishman tapped to a neck crank in the fourth round of their main-event match at UFC 229.
He returned in January 2020 and took out Cerrone. A year later, he fought Poirier at UFC 257 and was unable to beat “The Diamond” as he did in 2014, losing via second-round TKO. Six months later, they fought for the third time and McGregor broke his leg in the latter part of the opening frame.
The former 155 and 145-pound UFC champion has a professional MMA record of 22-6, with 19 wins coming way by KO/TKO.
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Who Is Next for McGregor?
It’s unclear who Notorious will fight next. It appears there are a lot of options for McGregor, including the fourth match with Poirier, as well as other veterans like Tony Ferguson and potentially a trilogy Nate Diaz, depending on if Diaz is still a UFC fighter by the time McGregor returns.
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