Conor McGregor: The truth behind his 3 MMA losses
Conor McGregor, irrespective of whether your love or hate him, is without a doubt one of the most influential personalities in the world of sports and entertainment today. The Notorious One who so very often prides himself on being the greatest fighter to have ever walked the face of God's green earth, is in actuality not invincible.
Now, while the aforementioned statement may not come as a surprise of any kind to the seasoned combat sports enthusiast, the fact remains that McGregor is notorious (pun intended) for marketing himself as an unbeatable wrecking machine who promises to run through each and every one of his rivals inside the arena of truth, that is the Mixed Martial Arts cage.
A key factor which enables McGregor to keep promoting himself as an unbeatable mythical figure in the MMA realm is his proneness of strongly asserting the famed theory--"Win or Learn". In simple terms, should the quick-witted Irishman find himself on the losing end of the equation in an MMA contest, he swiftly switches over from his braggadocios persona to that of a more humble version of himself.
Today, we are going to be uncovering the truth behind Conor McGregor's 3 losses in professional Mixed Martial Arts competition. Our aim is not only to examine what led to said losses, but also the loss in and of itself; as well as the aftermath of the defeats...
#3 Conor McGregor vs. Artemij Sitenkov: Cage of Truth 3 (June 28th, 2008)
This bout between Conor McGregor and Artemij Sitenkov was contested at Featherweight, and witnessed Sitenkov hand McGregor the latter's first career loss as an MMA pro. The lead-up to the bout saw McGregor come in on the back of a couple of TKO victories courtesy his heavy hands.
Truth be told, even in the early stages of his career, McGregor's boxing and KO power were indeed unquestionable. McGregor started out the fight aggressive, however, Sitenkov clinched up almost immediately and pulled guard--taking the fight to the ground.
McGregor notably landed several strikes as part of his seemingly relentless ground-and-pound strategy against Sitenkov who was on the bottom. Regardless, the latter defended well and never quite allowed McGregor to generate power in his ground strikes...Sitenkov then hunted for a leg-lock and got it after having to eat a few hammer-fists at the hands of The Notorious One.
Furthermore, McGregor got a tad reckless while trying to finish his opponent with ground-and-pound--subsequently opening himself up to the knee-bar that Sitenkov used to trap and tap out McGregor within the very first round. Honestly speaking, McGregor went on to take this loss a bit too hard, as Sitenkov recently revealed to TMZ Sports that Conor was in tears after losing his first pro MMA bout.
Nevertheless, crying after one's first MMA loss isn't exactly unheard of even at the highest levels of the sport, and one simply cannot overlook the fact that McGregor was a 19-year-old MMA rookie at the time...