Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Strikers

3. Conor McGregor

MMA's biggest star ever finishes third, including an impressive three first-place votes. My assumption is that those who voted for him didn't factor defense in their criteria, as it's an area of relative weakness for McGregor which both Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz exploited. In fact, even Sherdog's greatest grappler ever, Khabib Nurmagomedov, whom we don't consider an especially good striker, was able to knock down McGregor and hurt him badly. Offensively though, there are no doubts about McGregor's greatness. For all his ostentatious persona, his striking is based around complete mastery of the fundamentals. He has an incredible 74” reach for his weight class and much of his game is based around finding a home for his mammoth left cross, the best in MMA history. No other punch of its kind can match it for speed, power, straightness, suddenness and accuracy. It is a laser shot that comes out of nowhere and leaves the opponent unconscious. McGregor’s fantastic hand-fighting is relatively unique among top strikers. Related to this, his one-two is a work of art and he has very quick, powerful kicks. However, McGregor is at his most dangerous in the first round or two, and is a lesser fighter afterwards. Among his notable wins over other strikers, he thoroughly outpointed a young Max Holloway, knocked out a young Dustin Poirier at featherweight—though he would lose the trilogy with Poirier knocking him out in their next two meetings—thrashed then-lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, finishing him off in round 2, to become two-division champ, and of course, took 13 seconds to deliver possibly the greatest punch in MMA history, the perfect blend of timing, speed, and power, knocking out the seemingly unbeatable Jose Aldo.

Continue Reading » Number 2