UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has a winning record inside the octagon but one of the things that makes Mystic Mac so intriguing and entertaining is his willingness to make bold, oftentimes chillingly accurate, predictions as to how his future bouts will come to an end.
Fighters making predictions for their fights is not a new phenomenon, however; McGregor has honed this skill like no other modern combat sports athlete and uses it to drive his popularity and mainstream status into previously uncharted waters for a mixed martial artist.
Taking cues from one of the greatest talkers in all of sports, Muhammad Ali, nearly everyone remembers the rhyming one liner that came to fruition, but what about the times when Mystic Mac wasn’t so mystic? In the list below, we take a look at three times Mystic Mac missed his mark.
3) UFC Fight Night 59: Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver
The Prediction: January 18th, I feel I will stop Dennis Siver inside two minutes, McGregor said in an interview with Joe Rogan on Saturday’s UFC 182 pay-per-view broadcast. I have run through some scenarios, and I cannot see him escaping the first two minutes. He is a seasoned veteran, he is a kickboxing expert, a taekwondo expert, and he is my most experienced competitor that I will have faced. But I feel that under two minutes it will take me to dispatch him.
The Result: Although an impressive win, Mystic Mac was less than mystifying with his predictions as it took him nearly seven minutes to take care of Dennis Siver, 6.54 to be exact. No easy task and an impressive victory, but McGregor none the less was unable to back up his bold predictions.
2) UFC 202: Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz II
The Prediction: “This time, I’m still going to march forward, I’m still going to press him, I’m still going to bust him. There’s just going to be a lot more in my tank. I’m just going to be a lot more prepared for a man who can stay in there with me, but even still, I struggle to give him past round three. If I was to make a prediction, which I will right now, I believe I will repay the favor and KO him inside the second round.”
The Result: Following some of the greatest pre-fight trash talk the world of combat sports has ever seen, this contest definitely did not disappoint. Again, McGregor missed his mark with his prediction but with the way this fight played out I don’t think anyone minded, or even remembered for that matter, that Mystic Mac failed to come through with his word. In a hard fought and arguably one of the best fights of the year, McGregor won a majority decision in a fight that could have gone either way or even been declared a draw.
1) UFC 196: Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz
UFC 196 was expected to be headlined by a UFC Lightweight Championship bout between champion Rafael dos Anjos and Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor, however; when dos Anjos was forced to withdraw and a replacement for McGregor was hard to come by, TUF season 5 winner Nate Diaz stepped up on just 10 days notice and the bout was changed to a welterweight contest. The trash talking began and the inevitable Mystic Mac prediction was made.
The Prediction: “His soft body and his lack of preparation, he will not be able to handle the ferocity. End of the first I feel he will be put away.”
The Result: Mystic Mac could not have been more wrong, had to eat his words, and ended up looking much like a brash, cocky teenager who had to walk home with his tail between his legs. In what would turn out to be a major turning point in Diaz’s career and would catapult him into mainstream stardom, Nate Diaz shocked the world by choking out McGregor in latter part of the second round.
