Let's Take A Look At Conor McGregor Sparring Against Chris Van Heerden, A Welterweight Boxer Ranked 30th In The World

Alright, alright, I know. Not a great look for my boy. This video was taken in May of 2016 and caused a big ruckus, because McGregor’s team chopped it up like it was one sided in Conor’s favor and Van Heerden “clapped back” with the unedited footage (which is the video above). There’s a decent amount of swinging and missing from the Notorious one, and also a decent amount of landing from Van Heerden. A lot of stuff McGregor just doesn’t have the answer to, and isn’t adapted to, most noticeably the footwork. He’s still using his wider, “stalking prey” stance when walking Chris down, and when he’s on defense, he’s flatfooted.

McGregor also learns the hard way that not all of his stand up tricks that work in mixed martial arts will translate to the ring when trying to bait Chris into throwing a jab so he could either hit the signature “rock back” jab we saw against Aldo, or the 1-2 counter we saw against Alvarez.

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When you’re fighting someone with the hand speed of top 30 boxer, though…

Pow right in the kissa.

Conor McGregor IS a fighter who seems to drastically improve after every fight, and this was over a year ago before he was specifically training to box, so things could be looking better now, and for the sake of excitement, let’s all pretend they have. I’m sticking with my take that Conor still has a 1% chance to win the fight against Mayweather, and I’m gonna say that so often you’ll be sick of it by next week. #WarMcGregor