Every Conor McGregor Fight, Ranked

Published: June 17, 2026 · Good Fights

Conor McGregor is one of the most entertaining fighters combat sports has produced, and he has headlined some of its biggest events. Ahead of his return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11, we ranked his whole career.

The order is set by Good Fights users, who rate every bout on a ten-point scale. It measures how good a fight was to watch, not who won or how big the night was, so a five-round war can outrank a quick knockout and a loss can outrank a win. We count up from his lowest-rated fight to his highest. You do not need to know his catalogue to follow along: each entry explains who he was fighting, what was at stake and what the fans thought.

15. Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather (2017)

We start with the outlier, a fight that was not an MMA fight at all. After becoming a two-division UFC champion, McGregor crossed over into a professional boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, one of the greatest boxers of his era. That the UFC allowed one of its champions to do this was remarkable on its own, and Dana White helped promote it.

It was more competitive than skeptics expected. McGregor, who had never boxed professionally, was busy early and took some of the opening rounds on activity, landing a few shots that had the arena believing. Then experience took over. Mayweather paced himself, picked McGregor apart as he tired, and the referee stopped it in the tenth round. One Good Fights user, Crusty Chalupa, summed up the reaction: "a better than expected performance from McGregor gets overshadowed by Floyd's Counter-Strike cosplay." A sporting loss, but one of the largest combat-sports spectacles of the century, and the night that cemented McGregor as a genuine crossover star.

14. Conor McGregor vs Donald Cerrone (2020)

Returning after a 15-month layoff that followed the Khabib loss and the Mayweather bout, McGregor needed a clean night against Donald Cerrone, a popular and experienced veteran, and it was over almost immediately. He opened with an unusual tactic in the clinch, shoulder strikes that bloodied and broke Cerrone's nose, then followed with a head kick and punches to finish it in 40 seconds. It was the second-fastest win of his career, behind only the Aldo knockout. Good Fights users saw it for what it was; one, Cool Panda, called it "the notorious Conor Mc mismatch." It remains, to date, his most recent victory.

13. Conor McGregor vs Dennis Siver (2015)

McGregor dismantled Dennis Siver with kicks and boxing for a second-round stoppage. The win was a formality. What is remembered is the moment after, when McGregor leapt over the cage to confront Jose Aldo at ringside, theater that helped sell the title fight to come. Siver week was also the first time McGregor spoke openly about how he studies an opponent's body type and movement and trains for it specifically, dismissing Siver as a wrestler with an overhand who gases. The analyst and the showman, side by side.

12. Conor McGregor vs Diego Brandao (2014)

This is the night McGregor's star truly took off. Headlining in his home city of Dublin for the first time, in front of a roaring home crowd, he stopped Diego Brandao in the first round and earned a Performance of the Night bonus. It was his second first-round finish in the UFC, and it made the wider audience take notice. It also produced an enduring line. With Irish fighters going 4-0 on the card, McGregor told the crowd, "We're not here to take part, we're here to take over."

11. Conor McGregor vs Max Holloway 1 (2013)

Max Holloway. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

This fight looks very different now than it did then, which is what makes the UFC 329 rematch so unusual. McGregor outpointed a 21-year-old Max Holloway, who would go on to become one of the greatest featherweights in history, over three rounds. It was the only decision in McGregor's first 22 professional fights. There is a hidden story in it: midway through, in a grappling exchange, McGregor tore the ACL in his left knee. Unable to stand or strike securely, he changed plans, took Holloway down and controlled him on the ground to the final bell. That he won at all, on one leg and improvising, reads as more impressive in hindsight than it did on the night.

10. Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 1 (2014)

This is the fight that proved the hype translated against top competition. Dustin Poirier was a rising contender and a genuine test, and McGregor passed it, using his reach and counter-striking to finish Poirier in the first round. On the broadcast, Mike Goldberg captured the style moments before the end: "He's very good at using all of that reach, turning his shoulder, fighting long." When it was over, Joe Rogan put it simply: "He said he would make it look easy. He made it look easy. Another first round KO."

It is also where the showman fully arrived. Asked by Rogan in the cage why the whole country of Ireland had shut down for the fight, McGregor delivered the line that named the persona: "I don't just knock them out, I pick the round." He went on: "These featherweights don't understand, it's a whole other ballgame when they get hit by me. I said I would knock him out in the first round and I knocked him out in the first round. You can call me Mystic Mac because I predict these things." He used the moment to begin calling out Jose Aldo, planting the rivalry that would carry him to stardom.

9. Conor McGregor vs Jose Aldo (2015)

Jose Aldo had not lost in roughly a decade and was the only featherweight champion the UFC had ever crowned. After a long, heated buildup, the unification fight was over in 13 seconds. McGregor goaded Aldo into a hard right hand, slipped inside it, and landed a counter left as the champion came forward, dropping him and finishing on the spot. It remains the fastest finish in UFC title-fight history.

Two details show how deliberate it was. Footage later emerged of McGregor drilling that exact counter backstage before the fight, and he had said beforehand that he expected to agitate Aldo into an undisciplined punch he could time. "Precision beats power, and timing beats speed," he said afterward. One Good Fights user, CoolFightBro, recommends it on those terms: "One for the history books. Watch it, won't take up much of your time."

8. Conor McGregor vs Marcus Brimage (2013)

McGregor's UFC debut, and he arrived already a draw. He had held two titles at once, featherweight and lightweight, in the London-based Cage Warriors promotion, and built a devoted Irish following on charisma and one-punch knockouts. The story goes that Dana White, on a trip to Ireland, was so overwhelmed by people urging him to sign McGregor that he did. The fight was a tidy preview of the style to come: he drew Marcus Brimage in, baited the exchange, and landed the pull counter that became his trademark, where he invites the opponent to throw, slips just clear, then strikes the opening they leave behind. He finished it about a minute into the first round and took a Knockout of the Night bonus.

7. Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 3 (2021)

The trilogy decider, with the rivalry tied at one win each, is the grimmest entry here. The two traded in the opening round, Poirier finding his range, and then it ended in a way no one wanted. In the final seconds of round one, McGregor stepped back onto his lower leg and it snapped, and the fight was waved off by doctor's stoppage. There was barely a fight to judge, which is reflected in how it rates, but the consequences were large. The injury began the long layoff McGregor is only now returning from. One Good Fights user spoke for many, calling it a "terrible climax to the trilogy."

6. Conor McGregor vs Chad Mendes (2015)

UFC 189 was the first pay-per-view McGregor headlined, and the event around it became part of the sport's history. He was meant to fight Aldo after a multi-country promotional World Tour, but Aldo withdrew with a rib injury and elite wrestler Chad Mendes stepped in on short notice for an interim title.

It was the first time McGregor faced a high-level wrestler, and for a while it went badly. Mendes took him down and did real damage with ground-and-pound in the second round. But rather than hold the dominant position, Mendes went for a guillotine choke, McGregor scrambled free, and back on the feet he unloaded and finished Mendes with seconds left in the round. This fight rates higher than the more famous 13-second Aldo knockout that came months later, for a simple reason: there was an actual fight, with real adversity, before the finish. The night is remembered as much for its atmosphere, an estimated 10,000-plus Irish fans who packed Las Vegas even for the weigh-ins, and the rare live musical walkouts the UFC staged for it.

5. Conor McGregor vs Eddie Alvarez (2016)

At UFC 205, the promotion's first event at Madison Square Garden, McGregor held the featherweight title and challenged lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles at once. It was a masterclass. He took the center of the cage, dropped Alvarez repeatedly in the first round, and made an accomplished champion look out of his depth, before a clean four-punch combination ended it in the second. One Good Fights user, a Villa Films, captured how lopsided it was: "Very one sided fight, would love to have seen Eddie try and implement some of that strategy he talked about. McGregor just too skilled though." It was his most technically flawless title performance, even if it lacked the back-and-forth of his highest-rated fights.

4. Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov (2018)

This was the biggest event of McGregor's career and the most personal rivalry the sport has produced. The buildup turned genuinely ugly, including an incident months earlier when McGregor threw a hand truck at a bus carrying Khabib and other fighters. The fight itself was a one-sided demonstration of what Khabib does to everyone. He weathered the early going, took McGregor down and battered him, and the constant threat of the takedown forced McGregor to drop his hands and absorb clean punches. Khabib finished it with a neck crank in the fourth round, then leapt the cage to go after a member of McGregor's team, setting off a post-fight brawl. One Good Fights user, PaoloReaper, remembers it for the room: "One of the best, most heated atmospheres ever, in the biggest and most anticipated fight of all time."

It also marked a shift. A popular theory held that the money and fame from the Mayweather bout had dulled his hunger, and analysts like the boxing trainer Teddy Atlas reached for an old Marvin Hagler line to describe him: it is hard to get up and do roadwork at five in the morning when you have been sleeping in silk pajamas. Khabib would retire without ever granting the rematch.

3. Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 2 (2021)

Seven years after McGregor knocked him out, Poirier had become one of the most complete lightweights in the world, and he arrived with a plan. The opening round was competitive, McGregor landing shoulder strikes and finding moments. Then Poirier began chopping at McGregor's lead leg with low calf kicks, a tactic that quietly takes away a striker's mobility and power. By the second round McGregor's footwork was gone, and Poirier opened up and stopped him with punches, the first time McGregor was finished by strikes in MMA. The result flipped a rivalry that had looked settled and exposed a real vulnerability, one his long stretches of inactivity did nothing to help.

2. Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 1 (2016)

This is the fight that first made McGregor look beatable. Booked to challenge for the lightweight title, he lost his opponent to injury, and Nate Diaz stepped in on short notice at welterweight, a big jump in size against a notoriously tough opponent. The buildup was its own story. For the first time, McGregor's pre-fight needling did not land: Diaz was unbothered and fired it straight back. The fight followed suit. McGregor started fast and connected with the left hand that had dropped everyone before, but Diaz took it and kept walking forward. As McGregor tired, Diaz's boxing took over, and when a fatigued McGregor shot for a takedown, Diaz used the scramble to take his back and submit him in the second round. McGregor's response set up everything after it: rather than make excuses, he leaned on his coach John Kavanagh's mantra, "you win or you learn," and admitted he had underestimated what the extra weight would do to Diaz's resilience.

1. Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 2 (2016)

McGregor's highest-rated fight on Good Fights is the rematch he spent five months obsessing over, and it is the clearest evidence of what he could be at his best. He kept it at welterweight again so neither man cut weight, then changed his approach completely. Instead of hunting an early knockout, he attacked Diaz's lead leg with kicks to slow him down, picked his shots, and scored knockdowns across the first two rounds. Then the fight turned: Diaz rallied in the third, pressing a visibly exhausted McGregor against the fence, before McGregor recovered in the fourth to circle and land clean left hands. The fifth was a grind. The judges scored it a majority decision for McGregor.

It rates a notch above their first fight because it was the better, more complete contest, and because it answered the question that one raised. As one Good Fights user, theconstantines, wrote: "McGregor shows us he can train for specific opponents, and develop endurance and pace for a 5 round war. Well fought and great tempo the whole way through." Not everyone agreed on the result. Another, Cool Panda, still argues "Nate was the better fighter, it's criminal that we never got a trilogy." That disagreement is the fun of it. "The king is back," McGregor said afterward, and for one night he was.

Fans are already hyped for the next Conor fight

Which brings us to the fight that prompted this list. The UFC 329 rematch with Max Holloway has no rating yet, because it has not happened, but Good Fights users can log how excited they are for it ahead of time. As of writing it carries a perfect 10 out of 10 hype score, the highest mark a fight can hold going in. Whether McGregor can produce one more entry worthy of the top of this list, after five years away, is the question that will settle on July 11 at UFC 329.