5 things you probably forgot about Conor McGregor's last stint as a TUF coach
It’s now been officially confirmed that Conor McGregor will be one of the coaches for the 30th season of The Ultimate Fighter, alongside Michael Chandler. However, it won’t be the Irishman’s first TUF coaching gig.
Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor have been named coaches of The Ultimate Fighter 🍿
They will face off in the octagon at the end of the season 🔥 https://t.co/owH5OkjTV3
Conor McGregor famously coached the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter back in 2015. In the years that have followed, plenty of what happened on that season has been forgotten.
With ‘The Notorious’ about to embark on his second go-around on the reality show, it’s worth looking back at his previous coaching stint and remembering some of the more important parts of it.
Here are five things that you might’ve forgotten about Conor McGregor’s last time as a TUF coach.
#5. Conor McGregor coached TUF 22 against Urijah Faber, not Jose Aldo
In late 2015, when Conor McGregor embarked on his first stint as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, he was preparing for the biggest fight of his career up to that point.
‘The Notorious’ was booked against Jose Aldo in a battle for the Brazilian’s UFC featherweight title. So, on the face of it, it would’ve made sense to have the two rivals coach on TUF 22 against one another.
However, despite this, McGregor’s coaching foe was actually Urijah Faber, who was competing in the bantamweight division at the time, not Aldo. Sure, McGregor and Faber embarked on a fun and sometimes-heated rivalry during the reality show, but it never built towards a fight between the two.
So why was ‘The California Kid’ chosen as the rival coach to the Irishman, rather than Aldo? Well, there’s probably a simple explanation.
Aldo’s ability to speak English was never that great during his UFC career. That might’ve made for a clunky season to watch, as well as having an impact on the fighters he was coaching.
More to the point, the UFC chose to have McGregor coach a team of European fighters against a team of American fighters, and Aldo obviously wouldn’t have worked as a coach for a US team.
In the end, it didn’t really matter, as the rivalry between ‘The Notorious’ and Aldo had already built to the point that their fight was one of the biggest in UFC history.
To add to that, McGregor clearly wasn’t too distracted by his coaching gig as he defeated the Brazilian to claim the title in just 13 seconds.
Conor McGregor vs Jose Aldo at UFC 194 on December 12, 2015 in Las Vegas, NV. #DWCOTD https://t.co/1h4KEjafRs
#4. The format of TUF 22 appeared to be tweaked to suit Conor McGregor
One interesting point that people tend to forget about TUF 22 was the slight tweak in format – a tweak that seemed to suit Conor McGregor and his teammate Artem Lobov.
Like most seasons of TUF that preceded it, TUF 22 originally featured 32 fighters. Those athletes were all matched in preliminary bouts, with the 16 winners advancing onto the reality show proper.
Despite McGregor talking up his chances, Lobov was beaten by France’s Mehdi Baghdad in those preliminary bouts, and that appeared to be that for ‘The Russian Hammer’.
However, on the second episode, it was abruptly announced that unlike the previous seasons, there would be nine, not eight, first-round bouts to decide the season’s quarter-finalists.
That meant that McGregor and his rival coach Urijah Faber could each bring back one of the losing fighters. Unsurprisingly, ‘The Notorious’ was quick to select Lobov.
Nine first round winners could not advance into four quarter-finals, of course, so how did the UFC decide which fighter to eliminate? Typically, it was decided that Dana White would remove the winning fighter that he deemed least impressive.
The unfortunate fighter in question turned out to be Chris Gruetzemacher, who defeated Sascha Sharma in an admittedly dull bout. Thankfully, fate intervened to prevent his unfair elimination.
Martin Svensson, who advanced to the quarter-finals by submitting Thanh Le, suffered a broken elbow during the clash and had to drop out, allowing ‘Gritz’ to make a rightful return.
As for Lobov, it’s worth discussing what happened to him later.
#3. Conor McGregor helped to sow the seeds of the feud between T.J. Dillashaw and Team Alpha Male during TUF 22
The feud between T.J. Dillashaw and his former teammates at Team Alpha Male, namely Urijah Faber and Cody Garbrandt, is one of the most storied in UFC history.
However, it’s easy to forget that the seeds for that feud were sewn during TUF 22 by none other than Conor McGregor.
At the time, Dillashaw had become the star pupil of Team Alpha Male’s head coach Duane Ludwig. The two had begun to branch off from Faber and his crew. The situation had begun to become strained, but when TUF 22 was taped, Dillashaw was still firmly on Faber’s side.
However, ‘The Notorious’ began to question that when Dillashaw made an appearance on the show alongside Faber. McGregor claimed that the then-UFC bantamweight champion was only appearing to further his own interest, and would soon depart Team Alpha Male for good and take Ludwig with him.
Faber, unsurprisingly, didn’t take kindly to his then-teammate and friend being labeled a “snake in the grass”, but remarkably, it was Garbrandt who erupted at the Irishman.
He attempted to attack McGregor, resulting in a pull-apart brawl that was seen as one of the highlights of the season.
However, in the end, ‘The Notorious’ was proven right. Dillashaw did indeed depart Team Alpha Male under a cloud soon after the incident and, ironically, Garbrandt would become his most bitter rival.
Hilariously, this remains perhaps the best example of McGregor’s infamous ‘Mystic Mac’ persona during his UFC career.
#2. Conor McGregor lost the coaches’ challenge to Urijah Faber on TUF 22
One of the highlights of any TUF season is the coaches’ challenge, which features the coaches going head-to-head in a competition that’s often far away from a clash in the octagon.
In the reality show’s early seasons, sports like basketball, pool, and bowling were featured as part of the coaches’ challenge, but by TUF 22, things had gotten a little more “out there.”
Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber’s challenge, then, saw them embark in a bizarre competition that had them dropping watermelons out of helicopters, aiming for huge targets painted on the ground below them.
Naturally, prior to the challenge ‘The Notorious’ was bullish. He admitted that he’d have preferred a more athletic or physical challenge, but also stated that his accuracy would be too much for Faber, “even with watermelons.”
In the end, though, the Irishman was proven wrong, as he was firmly beaten by ‘The California Kid’ in the challenge, missing out on a chance to win $10k as well as $1,500 for each of his fighters.
To say that the challenge was bizarre would be an understatement, but afterwards, McGregor admitted that he felt “sick as a dog” after the result, as he simply couldn’t stand losing anything.
#1. Conor McGregor’s team produced both finalists on TUF 22 – but neither of his fighters won the series
While it’s fair to say that Conor McGregor was well beaten by Urijah Faber when it came to dropping watermelons from a helicopter, he fared a little better when it came to actually coaching his team of fighters.
Despite Faber being more renowned for his work with younger fighters as the leader of Team Alpha Male, McGregor’s European team dominated proceedings on TUF 22.
Of the eight quarter-finalists, six came from McGregor’s team, a number that was reduced to five when Martin Svensson was forced out of the tournament due to an elbow injury.
However, that didn’t stop three of the Europeans from advancing to the semi-finals. Saul Rogers, Marcin Wrzosek, and Artem Lobov represented McGregor’s team there, while Julian Erosa was the lone representative of Team Faber.
Lobov and Rogers ended up moving onto the final, meaning that not only had McGregor produced both finalists, but his decision to bring his teammate Lobov back was largely justified.
However, prior to the season finale, it was revealed that Rogers was unable to get a visa to enter the US, resulting not only in his removal from the finals, but his departure from the UFC full stop.
Strangely, rather than replace ‘The Hangman’ with one of the other two beaten semi-finalists, the UFC instead pegged Ryan Hall, who’d lost to Rogers in the quarter-finals, as his replacement.
Artem Lobov vs Ryan Hall to determine the #TUF22 champion!! #TUFFinale https://t.co/BW3nJHR9Jf
‘The Wizard’ went onto defeat Lobov via unanimous decision, meaning that neither of McGregor’s fighters ended up coming out on top in the season.
It’s something that ‘The Notorious’ will definitely hope to put right when he coaches against Michael Chandler later this year.