IRELAND’S GREAT UFC hope Conor McGregor takes on Max Holloway at Boston’s TD Garden later tonight.
We will be taking you through the build-up, the fight itself, as well as bringing reaction afterwards.
So kick back and prepare for some action as ‘The Notorious’ aims to earn his second victory in the Octagon.
As always, we’d love to hear your comments. Send them to ben@thescore.ie, tweet them, find us on Facebook, or leave a comment below.
Good evening and welcome along, sports fans. He may have been steadily climbing the ladder since finding MMA as a teenager, but the hype surrounding Dublin fighter Conor McGregor has exploded in the past six months.
Back in April, he turned more than a few heads with a first round TKO in his UFC debut against Marcus Brimage in Sweden. Since then, the 25-year-old has been gaining new fans at a phenomenal rate with his charismatic personality and devastating ability.
Tonight, he faces Hawaiian opponent Max Holloway in Boston – where the main event is Shogun Rua v Chael Sonnen.
The prelims began at 9.3opm and we’re told McGregor is due out sometime between 11pm and 12.30am.
In need of some pre-fight reading? You came to the right place…
We got to meet Conor for a lengthy chat a couple of weeks ago, where he talked about cruising down the Las Vegas strip with UFC president Dana White and his gameplan for this latest bout. Earlier this week, SBG Ireland founder and Conor’s coach John Kavanagh was nice enough to take a call from us in his Boston hotel. He revealed that former team-mate and UFC 93 fighter Tom Egan would be cornering on the night and insisted that Conor has improved immensely in the past four months.
Not enough?
We also managed to track down the last man to beat McGregor – pro boxer Joseph Duffy, there’s quotes from the pre-fight press conference, a preview of the whole card from our MMA expert Brian Kirk and we even came up with 10 simple steps to hosting a party for fight night.
Oh, and here’s a picture of McGregor from his school Sports Day:
Credit: Robert Hamilton via SetantaMMAShow
For those of you who have yet to see Conor fight, check out his impressive highlights reel:
YouTube credit: Bloodstream MMA
All you lucky sods who’ve got BT Sports 2 can tune in in a couple of minutes with Conor scheduled to fight between 11.30pm and 12.30am depending on how the fights before his go.
SUPER NEWS! There are tonnes of people asking for a stream and, guess what, we’ve got one. Thanks to the good people at UFC Ireland, we’ve learned that you can watch the fight at: http://www.ufc.tv/video/prelims-ufc-on-fox-sports-1-1. Simply sign up or log in through Facebook. Do it!
Steven Siler v Mike Brown is just about to begin with McGregor v Holloway up next. Not long to go now.
That didn’t last long. Siler wins by first round TKO. Popcorn at the ready, folks. Our boy is about to get started.
McGregor gets a huge applause while walking towards the Octagon to this:
Really impressive opening round from McGregor. He begins on the offensive and catches Holloway with a few nice punches. He looks so unfazed.
“I feel great,” Conor tells coach John Kavanagh after round 2, during which large parts were spent grappling on the ground.
It’s all over. No knockout this time but there’s little doubt that McGregor was the more dominant of the two fighters. Official decision on the way.
McGregor is announced victorious.
That’s now 2-0 in the UFC for featherweight McGregor and although he didn’t finish the fight in such spectacular style this time around it was an assured performance against what proved to be a tough opponent in Holloway.
I’m lost for words, McGregor tells Joe Rogan. “The support was unreal. Max gave me great exchanges.”
He adds that he suffered a knee injury in the second round.
Not as convincing as his last fight, but a good performance against a tough opponent. If the injury is as bad as he claims, it’s going to be difficult to get a fight in before the end of the year. Conor was definitely cocky in the first round, and it worked, but he showed good determination to go to plan B when he got the injury.
Delighted to see someone from this small country, really shaking things up in a mostly American and Brazilian driven organisation
Frombar.com has the fight. No sign up or any of that just click on the link. Enjoy!
Another bandwagon for the silly Irish to jump on
Or genuine UFC enthusiasts that want to see an Irish man do well in the sport. Off to bed with ya sourballs
Not even genuine ufc fans, I like to see country men do well, well done conor
You do know its all fake just like wrestling don’t you?
You get that in bed with the ladies/men/farm animals all the time don’t you
Poor goebong – can’t even troll properly. The art of trolling is to not be so obvious. Now move along Mr. Anonymous twitter user.
I wasn’t trolling deadly serious . It is a band wagon people who know nothing about the sport start supporting him cause he is “Irish” we are getting as bad as the English
You know its s bandwagon when the women start supporting him
Do you know what else is a bandwagon? People signing up to a twitter account just to use on here for trolling. It’s lame & overdone & really sad.
What a fighter !!
Good win but he got a bit cocky in round two, should have got rid of him instead of showboating. Could have backfired at the end of round three. Interesting to see who he gets next
He said in his post fight
interview He popped his knee in round 2 so had to take it to the floor
Before that, asking his opponent to hit him, could see a sucker punch ruining the night but thankfully he got away with it. Look what happened to Anderson silva
This guy is an absolute icon. I love it all. He backs up his cockyness by being an all round awesome fighter!!! Putting Ireland back on the sports map!!!! HERO
Free link!! Yiss!! thank yu score and UFC!
Fantastic character and a great representative for this country and his fellow martial artists here. Onwards and upwards.
I’m watching the BT stream at viponlinesports.eu
Is it any coincidence that the irish flag above is kind of in the shape of Northern Ireland, anyway goodluck Conor
Well spotted ha.
Are they actually streaming the fight or just typing about it?
Nah bt sport have the rights I think
He is more in the shape of Donegal
Unfortunately we will be bringing you a liveblog but if you’ve got BT Sports 2 you can watch the fight itself. Coverage begins at 11pm.
What time is his fight on at?
Now
Anyone giving me a thumbs down needs to go back to school and learn their geography
Now to hear Snotser (the den)give a speech ..
Delighted for him he comes across as a really cool guy :)
http://www.sportlemon.tv/20130817/wv520fd5e76590d956195573-623017.html theres a good link
What channel will it be on???
Ohhh… People don’t like that for some reason
http://0eb.net/playerall.php?id=556885
fix: http://0eb.net/playerallr.php?id=556885
For anyone who missed it, it’s up on YouTube at the moment – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fFhJ5CHpHU
Connor fights like Nick Diaz but with better kicks.