Issue 118

August 2014

With featherweight Conor McGregor coming back from an 11-month injury lay-off, can ‘Notorious’ cope with the aggressive Diego Brandao?

It’s been just 15 months since Irish featherweight Conor McGregor made his UFC debut, but already his growing global recognition looks set to keep pace with the promotion’s worldwide expansion.

But with that added fame comes added pressure, especially when you’re coming back from an 11-month lay-off, and headlining the main event in your hometown.

So when McGregor steps into the Dublin O2 Octagon to face Diego Brandao on July 19th will ‘Notorious’ be able live up to all the hype?

Coming off a dominant decision victory over Max Holloway last August, where he tore his ACL during a guard pass, the 14-2 Irishman was been in rehabilitation for well over six months in Los Angeles, California.

Against Holloway, McGregor displayed his striking prowess and top game, winning every round for a one-sided points decision over the highly-touted Hawaiian. And while he’s been inactive in the cage for close to a year, McGregor has still been taking shots at the majority of his rivals in the 145lb weight class. 

In fact, he’s kicked up such a social media storm, the polarizing 25-year-old (you either love him or hate him) has a long list of featherweights, such as Cub Swanson, Clay Guida and Dustin Poirier, all lining up to take on the former two-weight Cage Warriors champion.

Before them, however, is Diego Brandao. The TUF 14 featherweight champion, a replacement for the injured Cole Miller, is coming off a KO loss against another one of McGregor’s featherweight foes in Poirier. 

The Greg Jackson trained Brazilian began his career three years before McGregor even made his debut, yet both will be looking to use a win in the Emerald Isle as a way to catapult themselves into title contention.

It’s no secret McGregor will be looking to strike and keep the fight standing, as he did in his debut ‘Knockout of the Night’ performance against Marcus Brimage in April 2013. And considering he’s taken shots at the hot-headed Brazilian in the press before, we’re sure he’d be happy with a striking battle. Especially when you consider the two blemishes on McGregor’s record both come via submissions in under a minute early in his career, one of them against Joseph Duffy, a fighter eliminated before gaining entry to the house on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck.

Having not been taken to the canvas in his two UFC fights, we still haven’t seen how McGregor would handle being on his back on the big stage and defending against the top game of an accomplished black belt like Brandao.

And with Brandao boasting five career wins by tapout, including a ‘Submission of the Night’ bonus win over Dennis Bermudez, McGregor will certainly be concerned about his rival taking the fight to the ground. The Brazilian employing the same winning strategy he did against lanky featherweight Pablo Garza in April 2013, when he rag-dolled ‘The Scarecrow’ around the Octagon before submitting him with an arm-triangle choke, would benefit him against ‘Notorious.’

But remember, as powerful as Brandao’s Muay Thai appears, he has been finished by strikes five times in his career, which is McGregor’s bread and butter. Brandao’s ability to stay calm and not waste too much energy in the first round is also important.

The difficulty in assessing this fight is deciding which man is under most pressure. Yes, McGregor has the task of headlining a show in his home town and trying to add to his 6-1 Dublin record, but Brandao is coming off a loss in his last fight where he missed weight and, behind the scenes, threatened to stab Poirier. Neither will sit well with the UFC.