Conor McGregor reacts as fan posts unseen footage of UFC KO that made history
Conor McGregor’s history-making knockout of Jose Aldo is one of the best finishes in UFC history.
After months of tormenting the Brazilian MMA icon, McGregor finally got the chance to back up his words when he met the long-reigning featherweight champion at UFC 194 in December 2015.
At the time, Aldo had held the 145lbs strap for nearly five years and had made seven successful title defences under the UFC banner.
‘Junior’ was the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in MMA’s premier promotion, and at that point, it was almost inconceivable that anyone could defeat him, let alone in the manner that McGregor ended up doing it.
The once seemingly unbeatable Aldo let his emotions get the better of him on fight night as he came charging out of the gate, before being dropped and stopped with a picture-perfect left hand inside the opening 13 seconds.
It marked the quickest stoppage win in UFC title history and skyrocketed McGregor to superstardom.
The knockout went viral overnight and has been viewed 100s of millions of times since.
Yet nine years after the Irishman shocked the world, one fan recently uploaded a never-before-seen angle of the KO from over McGregor’s shoulder.
The video caught the eye of ‘Notorious’, who couldn’t help but remind everyone of his impressive feat.
Reacting to the clip, he tweeted: “FASTEST KO IN UFC TITLE FIGHT HISTORY.”
McGregor’s stoppage was rated the ‘Greatest Knockout in UFC’s first 25 Years’ by the promotional outfit and led to him becoming the face of the company.
After beating Aldo, McGregor went on to be crowned the first simultaneous UFC champion when he snatched the lightweight strap from Eddie Alvarez in 2016.
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A little under two years later he faced Khabib Nurmagomedov in one of the highest-grossing MMA events of all time.
The T-Mobile Arena show drew an attendance of 20,034 fans, generating a live gate revenue of $17.2m.
It set the record for the highest-ever mixed martial arts attendance and live gate in Las Vegas, while it also garnered the biggest pay-per-view audience in the history of the sport with 2.4m domestic buys.
But those numbers were blown out of the water by McGregor’s crossover boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather in 2017.
The former dual-weight UFC champion pocketed an eye-watering $100m for the fight, which was watched by 4.6m households across the United States on PPV.
McGregor’s multiple staggering paydays combined with his many lucrative commercial deals have seen his estimated net worth rise to around £200m.
Although he claims he has made closer to £600m in total throughout his career.
Regardless, McGregor is the highest-paid MMA fighter of all time and topped Forbes’ list of the richest athletes in 2021 – thanks, in part, to the sale of his wildly successful whiskey business, Proper No. Twelve, for $600m.
He is now in the twilight of his career and hasn’t fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
However, he is set to make his long-awaited comeback against Michael Chandler either at the back end of 2024 or early 2025.