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Brendan Loughnane shared his appreciation for Conor McGregor after the former two-division UFC champion sent out a tweet urging the UFC to sign him.
Loughnane won the PFL featherweight championship tournament after defeating Bubba Jenkins via fourth-round TKO to win the $1 million prize at PFL 10 in New York this past weekend. McGregor subsequently took to Twitter to congratulate the Englishman, writing:
"UFC, sign Brendan Loughnane. Exciting fighter. A back story with the company. And of the European side. A money in the bank uk/Europe signing. Congrats on the win @BrendanMMA"
Loughnane recently appeared as a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, where he spoke about his PFL featherweight tournament win. When McGregor's tweet was brought up, the Manchester native was thankful that he went out of his way to get him signed to the UFC:
"I thought that was really nice, out of nowhere...I was out in the pub, still drinking and someone was like, 'Hey, Conor [McGregor] just tweeted you.' That was really random. When Conor speaks, everyone listens. But yeah, I'm [with the] PFL anyway."
Watch the full interview below:
Brendan Loughnane's history with the UFC
Brendan Loughnane has a unique history with the UFC. He was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes season but was eliminated in the second round. He then fought in the finalé, where he lost a unanimous decision to Mike Wilkinson.
In 2019, the Manchester native was given another opportunity to potentially sign with the UFC, this time on Dana White's Contender Series. He earned a unanimous decision win against Bill Algeo after all three judges scored the bout 30-27 in his favor.
Despite earning a unanimous decision win, White was critical of his performance at the end of the fight and as a result, didn't award him a UFC contract:
"There's 10 seconds left in the fight and you're going to shoot? If he f***ing wung it out at the end of the 10 seconds, I probably would've picked him."
