5 reasons why Conor McGregor will never regain the UFC lightweight title

#4. Conor McGregor may have lost the hunger that allowed him to reach the top of the UFC

Conor McGregor seems to have lost the hunger that took him to the top of the UFC

When Conor McGregor arrived in the UFC back in early 2013, while he had won two titles in Europe’s Cage Warriors promotion, it’s probably safe to say that he certainly wasn’t a superstar.

He was also about as far from rich as you could possibly get. While ‘The Notorious’ was a professional fighter at the time, he wasn’t far removed from working as a plumber and has spoken about his financial struggles prior to his UFC career on numerous occasions.

McGregor knocked out Marcus Brimage in his UFC debut and outright begged Dana White for a $60k bonus after the fight. However, soon after this, he wouldn’t need to do any begging at all.

In the years that have followed, Conor McGregor has made more money than any other fighter in the history of the UFC, reportedly earning well over eight figures for his latest UFC bouts. He also supposedly took home around over $100m for his 2017 fight with Floyd Mayweather alone.

Named by Forbes as the world’s highest paid athlete in 2021, Conor McGregor clearly doesn’t need to fight in the UFC for a living any more.

So with that in mind, it should hardly come as a surprise that the Irishman seems less hungry for success than he did in his early days with the promotion. He may state that he wants to regain the UFC lightweight title, but he no longer needs to do it to make money.

Any fighter who is less hungry is far less likely to find success in the octagon and so it stands to reason that Conor McGregor is unlikely to regain his title.

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#3. Conor McGregor now relies too heavily on his boxing

Ever since his clash with Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor has relied heavily on his boxing game in the UFC

One of the facets of Conor McGregor’s game that made him so successful was the fact that he was willing to use an unorthodox striking game to throw his opponents off.

Sure, ‘The Notorious’ rode the power of his left hand all the way to two UFC titles, but his movement, precision and timing were second-to-none back then. He was also willing to throw low-percentage strikes to set up his heavy punches.

McGregor was also highly adept at throwing kicks in order to break his opponents down. In particular, his attack to the body of Chad Mendes using front kicks set up what was, at the time, the biggest win of his UFC career.

However, these days, it’s fair to say that the Dublin native seems to have become a much more one-dimensional striker, almost entirely relying on his boxing to get by. It was this one-dimensional approach that appeared to cost him in his two fights with Dustin Poirier, as ‘The Diamond’ was able to use his low kicks to break the Irishman down, something McGregor didn’t seem to be expecting.

Sure, Conor McGregor did use his full arsenal in his 2020 win over Donald Cerrone, but the truth is that like fighters such as Quinton Jackson before him, he seems to have devolved somewhat.

A one-dimensional attack definitely won’t be enough to regain him the UFC lightweight title.