If you caught Conor McGregor’s stunning 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194, you were no doubt impressed by the Irishman’s movement and hand speed. He slipped Jose Aldo’s punch like it was nothing and then clocked him with a cross that dropped Aldo instantly to the canvas. Crazy stuff.
But you know what’s even crazier? Conor McGregor called this exact scenario leading up to the fight. “I see him over-reacting, over-extending, and then being KO’d unconscious,” the newly crowned king of the featherweights said back in November.
He also predicted several other not so accurate outcomes, from Aldo not showing up on fight night to Aldo quitting on the stool after the first round. But it’s still cool that he visualized the match exactly as it went down. Here’s the full quote (via Bloody Elbow):
“I feel I will KO him inside one. If he makes that walk, if I see him inside the Octagon, every single movement I make, I will get an over-reaction out of him because he is emotionally invested in it. There’s too much in it for him. The whole country of Brazil, it’s all piling on him.”
“If I just go ‘huh’ (feints’), he will react a million times too much. That’s how I see the fight playing out. I see him over reacting, over extending, then KO’d unconscious.”
Ronda Rousey made a similarly accurate prediction on how her fight with Holly Holm might play out. “I feel like she’s gonna try and like, keep distance and keep far away from me and get me frustrated until a point I’ll make a mistake and she can try and kick me in the head.”
Not that you should ditch your psychics and fortune tellers in favor of a UFC fighter. They’re not channeling Nostradamus here. Both Conor and Ronda have excellent coaching teams dissecting every opponent, from strengths that need to be avoided to weaknesses that can be exploited. There’s no doubt Conor trained extensively to take advantage of Aldo’s wild overhands, and all that hard work paid off in the very first exchange.