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Conor McGregor has competed inside the UFC octagon on 13 separate occasions but only failed to get his hand raised thrice. Since debuting against Marcus Brimage back in 2013, the Irishman has only fallen to three guys, namely Nate Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and most recently Dustin Poirier.
Over the past seven years, Conor McGregor has gone on to become the biggest name in the combat sports world today. Even those who don't follow MMA are familiar with the Irishman's charismatic persona and his conquests inside the cage.
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McGregor joined the UFC back in 2013 with a lot of hype surrounding him. On his debut, he knocked out Brimage in the very first round of the fight and there has been no looking back since that moment. The Notorious One went on an incredible seven-fight winning streak inside the octagon following his debut.
He capped off the incredible run by knocking out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds at UFC 194, becoming the UFC featherweight champion in the process. However, since then, the Irishman is 3-3 inside the octagon. He dropped three fights against some of the greatest fighters to ever grace the UFC octagon.
Let's take a glance at the three losses in Conor McGregor's UFC career.
1) Nate Diaz (UFC 196)
You can't be a fight fan and not love Nate Diaz's famous callout of Conor McGregor. In a profanity-laced tirade, The Stockton Slugger claimed that he would shake up the world by beating Conor McGregor, the guy, who had an aura of invincibility surrounding him back then.
Following his win over Aldo, few thought McGregor would go down against anyone anytime soon. However, all that changed when Diaz and McGregor met at UFC 196. It was McGregor's first outing at welterweight. He had competed as a featherweight before that and had intended to move up to 155lbs to challenge then lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos for a second belt.
However, since the Brazilian pulled out at the last moment and Diaz agreed to step up, McGregor took the fight at welterweight. The fight started as expected, with McGregor lighting Diaz up with his flashy strikes. It was in the second round that the fight was turned on its head.
McGregor was visibly gassing towards the end of the second round and Diaz smelled blood. A flurry of strikes on McGregor's face forced the Irishman to shoot for a takedown but Diaz was quick to snub the attempt. He achieved top-mount and punished McGregor with some vicious ground and pound before ultimately submitting him via rear-naked choke.
2) Khabib Nurmagomedov (UFC 229)
This fight had bad-blood written all over it. Fighters, coaches, their respective teams, managers, and even families got involved in the feud between McGregor and Nurmagomedov. The matchup came into being after McGregor launched a dolly into a bus that Khabib was traveling on, ahead of his fight against Al Iaquinta.
The dolly smashed the windows and a few UFC fighters got hurt. McGregor was soon arrested and taken to court. However, he was afforded bail and that's when Dana White managed to book the biggest matchup in UFC history with the lightweight title on the line. In the lead up to the fight, McGregor would tap into the dark side of his personality.
Khabib's religion, his country, his friends, his manager, and even his family weren't spared from Conor McGregor's insulting jibes. On 6th October 2018, it was finally time to let the hands do the talking.
Khabib Nurmagomedov dominated McGregor throughout the fight, managing to take him down and administer vicious ground and pound on the Irishman. In the second round, Khabib faked the takedown and launched an overhand shot that stunned and dropped McGregor. He followed it up with a takedown and according to UFC commentator Joe Rogan, almost 'smashed his face in'.
In the fourth round of the fight, a visibly tired McGregor tapped out to a neck crank submission. Chaos ensued afterward as Khabib immediately jumped out of the cage and started a brawl with McGregor's teammates.
3) Dustin Poirier (UFC 257)
In Poirier, McGregor was facing a man he had already beaten back in 2014. However, the biggest challenge for the Irishman was to overcome vast periods of inactivity since his loss to Khabib at UFC 229. Since that fight, McGregor had only fought once inside the octagon for 40 seconds.
McGregor had predicted a first-round KO victory against Poirier in the rematch. When the fight started, McGregor looked good on the feet and hit Poirier with clean left-hand shots. However, Poirier's vicious kicks on McGregor's lead leg started taking a toll on the southpaw.
In the second round of the fight, McGregor's stance changed and he was clearly struggling to move freely. It was then that Poirier found his opponent backed up against the fence, right where he wanted him. A flurry of devastating lefts accompanied by right hooks hurt McGregor badly.
The Diamond sent McGregor down with a clean right hook to the face and finished the fight with a left-hand shot that put the Irishman to sleep for the first time in his MMA career.
