Conor McGregor Losses: Only Times “The Notorious” Lost in the UFC and MMA

The noted UFC icon Conor McGregor had his last loss against the famed UFC Lightweight, Dustin Poirier, at UFC 264 where he also suffered a gruesome injury. McGregor broke his left shin bone completely during his last fight against Poirier, which sidelined him from competing in the octagon to date. However, ‘Mystic Mac’s’ next matchup has already been announced and his fans will obviously hope for his two-fight losing streak to end.

Looking at McGregor’s entry into the UFC, a lot of audiences viewed him as a fighter having the capability to stay undefeated throughout his career. However, McGregor had already been through losses in his fights even before joining the UFC.

How many fights has Conor McGregor lost in and out of the UFC?

‘Mystic Mac’ began his professional MMA career under an MMA promotion named ‘Cage of Truth’. He has also fought for a number of other promotions prior to his signing in the UFC.

He had his first-ever professional loss in MMA at his very first promotion, ‘Cage of Truth’. But this loss evolved him into a more upgraded fighter, so much so that a lot of MMA fans thought that he would stay undefeated after he joined the UFC. Despite boasting a combat sports career second to none, McGregor has 5 losses inside the UFC and 1 from COT.

Conor McGregor’s first loss against Artemij Sitenkov in 2008

As already stated, McGregor had his very first loss in MMA at a very early stage of his career at COT. His first loss came against a Lithuanian fighter named Artemij Sitkenov in the year 2008. McGregor was unable to get through even the initial round of the bout. He was submitted to a knee-bar by his opponent after the fight went to the ground right from the initial seconds.

However, a lot would agree that this McGregor can hardly be compared to the one that most MMA fans know today.

Conor McGregor Fight: Against the “Irish Joe” in 2010

McGregor had just joined the ‘Cage Warriors’ fight promotion when he faced the second defeat of his career. Actually, McGregor’s legendary ‘Cage Warriors’ run kicked off with a defeat. ‘The Notorious’ faced his own countryman, Joseph Duffy, also known as ‘Irish Joe’ at ‘Cage Warriors 39: The Uprising’ on 27 November 2010. Alike his previous loss, this fight also went to the ground pretty shortly.

McGregor’s comparative weakness in the ground game was witnessed in this fight as well. The fight ended at just the 38 seconds mark when McGregor tapped out to an arm-triangle choke by his countrymate fighter, ‘Irish Joe’.

Conor McGregor Fight: Conor McGregor’s first UFC loss against Nate Diaz in 2016

‘Mystic Mac’ experienced his first loss in UFC in a way that might have been unimaginable for a lot of UFC fans. The superb in-octagon prowess of the Irishman propelled a lot of fans to believe that McGregor had the potential to stay undefeated. However, all of those hopes were compromised when ‘The Notorious’ picked up his first defeat against the famed ‘Stockton Gangster’, Nate Diaz, at UFC 196 on 5 March 2016.

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Despite starting off the fight quite strongly and landing a number of significant strikes, McGregor still couldn’t take out Diaz. On the other hand, the heavy shots took a toll on his gas tank as well. Diaz started showing his dominance right from the second round. He landed a few superb strikes, rocking McGregor.

At about the 3:50-min mark, ‘The Notorious’ shot a double leg, but Diaz, owing to his superior jiu-jitsu, turned it into a favorable position for him. He quickly secured a tight rear-naked choke on McGregor which eventually forced a tap-out from him.

Conor McGregor’s loss against Floyd Mayweather in 2017

McGregor ventured out of the UFC Octagon in the year 2017 for his professional boxing debut. However, things didn’t go as he might have planned them since he had to taste defeat against his opponent, the famous undefeated boxer, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather. This ‘big-money’ fight garnered massive pay-per-view sales of about 4.3M.

‘Mystic Mac’ took on ‘Money’ on 26 August 2017. He battled it out with the arguably ‘greatest boxer of all time’ for 10 rounds before the referee stopped the fight. Despite a loss, this bout earned McGregor a lot of respect for his endurance to stand for 10 rounds against Mayweather.

Conor McGregor loss: Biggest UFC PPV match against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018

Well, no UFC fan can ever forget UFC 228 for its memorable main event where ‘The UFC champ-champ’ picked up his next loss. He was scheduled to fight the then UFC Lightweight kingpin, Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov, who absolutely dismantled McGregor inside the octagon to hand him probably his most destroying defeat.

The buildup to this bout was one hell of a chaotic one. It began with the infamous ‘hand truck thrown into bus incident’ which also got McGregor arrested. Further, he hurled racial and family-related insults towards Nurmagomedov in the pre-fight press conferences. All of this animosity, made UFC 228 the highest-selling PPV in the history of the UFC generating about 2.4 million PPV sales.

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‘The Notorious’ put up a fight and landed a few good strikes in the initial rounds. But, McGregor’s gas tank emptied readily. By the end of the third round, he already showcased signs of slowing down. However, in the fourth round, a brutal strike from Nurmagomedov brought him to the ground.

‘The Eagle’ didn’t miss the glaring chance. He eventually mounted himself on the back of McGregor and finished him off with a neck crank. McGregor submitted around the 3-min mark of the fourth round of the bout.

Two losses against Dustin Poirier in 2021

A lot of UFC fans might agree that the loss against Khabib Nurmagomedov changed McGregor completely. A rather lackluster version of the previously furious ‘Mystic Mac’ was seen in the Octagon in his next bouts. Things weren’t much different in his rematch against the famed UFC Lightweight, Dustin Poirier.

Even though ‘The Notorious’ had dominated his initial bout with Poirier, the story of the rematch was a completely different one. ‘The 34-year-old Irish’ started off the bout with a lot of prowess. Poirier found his strikes being equally matched up by McGregor in the initial round. However, it was Poirier’s brutal calf kicks that landed some significant damage to McGregor’s leg, slowing down his mobility.

At the 2:30-min mark, Poirier landed a combination of vicious strikes sending McGregor to the canvas. ‘The Diamond’ avenged the loss in his initial bout against McGregor defeating him via TKO. However, ‘Poirier’ had a vision that there should be a clear victor of this rivalry.

During the official announcement, ‘The Diamond’ signaled to the camera that there must be a trilogy bout between the two. Hence, the same between the two fierce rivals was scheduled for UFC 264.

However, it was rather disheartening for ‘Mystic Mac’s’ fans as he suffered a horrible injury. He broke the lower part of his left shin bone completely in the initial round of the bout.

Following that, ‘The Notorious’ was declared unfit to compete. The bout was awarded to Poirier yet again via a doctor’s stoppage. ‘Mystic Mac’ was also sidelined from competing for an unprecedented time due to this injury.

With this win, Poirier became the victor of his coveted rivalry against McGregor. It was also ‘Mystic Mac’s’ seventh and final loss of his professional fighting career.

How long did Conor McGregor remain unbeaten in professional MMA?

As the famous proverb goes, ‘Failure is the first step to success’, McGregor was rather quick to realize this. Looking at his eye-catching UFC debut, a lot may think that he might have held an undefeated pre-UFC record.

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Unfortunately, McGregor only remained unbeaten for two fights in his professional MMA career. ‘The Notorious’ picked up his first loss in his third professional MMA fight. However, a lot may consider that loss as a blessing in disguise for McGregor. He made massive changes in his game post this loss. Well, we all know how McGregor took the MMA world by storm.