Right now, there’s not a more dangerous weapon in MMA than Conor McGregor’s trusty left paw.
Never before have we seen a more reliable source of power in a featherweight/lightweight than the explosive ability of ‘The Notorious’ to send his opponents to the mat with one shot.
Jose Aldo tasted it just once but it was enough to turn the lights out on a champion who had gone unbeaten against the best of the best at 145lbs for over a decade.
Eddie Alvarez was the most recent victim to the Irish southpaw’s favourite technique as he was dropped on several occasions during the first attempted defence of his lightweight title on Saturday night.
Eddie tagged again! All @TheNotoriousMMA so far! #UFC205 #UFCNYC https://t.co/hIc1TL1byN
— eir Sport (@eirSport) November 13, 2016
Alvarez was dropped early and badly by the heavy-handed Dubliner and his jaw welcomed two devastating lefts in the stunning four-punch combination that closed the curtains on UFC 205.
Alvarez, understandably embarrassed and shocked by the defeat, has remained relatively quiet in the days since the bout but found the time to speak to Chael Sonnen on his podcast on Wednesday when he discussed McGregor’s notorious left hand.
“He doesn’t engage on it,” Alvarez said.
“He throws it off you so it’s the timing of it and I don’t even know, he might have landed to the back of my head. To be honest with you, with the first shot I had no clue what it was. I had no clue.
“I got hit and my butt was on the ground and I remember thinking in my head ‘What the fuck was that?’ I had no clue what the first shot I got dropped with was but I think it was that I threw and he threw at the same time. It was basically throw-on-throw. I threw and he threw and I missed but his range was able to get me.”
In the build-up to their grudge match, Alvarez had ridiculed McGregor as a one-dimensional fighter and claimed that his opponent had just one basic shot on which he relied in every bout.
While that was likely gamesmanship on the part of ‘The Underground King’, it seems that the left hand is enough for McGregor as he’s now used it to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two separate weight classes simultaneously.
“He does it really well,” Alvarez continued. “He throws on throw and he also changes it up where he’ll let you throw, he’ll rock back and then he’ll counter.
“He does it all three ways. All three ways of engagement, he does it all three ways with that left hand and he does well with it.
“What bugs me about the whole thing is that he didn’t do anything that we didn’t prepare for and I have no one to blame but myself about it and that’s what fucks me up about it and gets me angry.
“It would be easier if I could go back to my coach and say ‘You son of a bitch, you messed up and you didn’t tell me this was going to happen.’
“We literally got ready for all of this and I guess there’s a difference between knowing and doing. We knew but I simply didn’t execute.”
