How old is Conor McGregor? Age and career timeline, from first fight to 2026 UFC comeback originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
There’s a high chance anyone who has heard of mixed martial arts or the UFC has heard of Conor “The Notorious” McGregor. The Irishman’s peak atop fighting helped take the UFC to the next level in terms of global notability.
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While McGregor was a prized fighter who accumulated a 22-6-0 complete MMA record, his outside-the-cage theatrics played a huge role in making him a star. While it has been a while since “The Notorious” stepped foot in the octagon, he is slated to fight during the main event at UFC 329 against Max Holloway.
With the ample time off from MMA, many fans have been asking about how old McGregor will be at the time of the fight, while others who may not have followed the UFC during his prime have asked just how big was McGregor Mania?
Here’s how old the Irishman is, along with his MMA career timeline as a UFC fighter.
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How old is Conor McGregor?
Conor McGregor is 37 years old. He was born on July 14, 1988, in Dublin, Ireland.
McGregor made his MMA debut at the age of 18 during an amateur fight against Kieran Campbell for the Irish Ring of Truth promotion in Dublin. He won via technical knockout (TKO) in the first round. After the fight, he turned professional and began his upward climb to MMA stardom.
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Conor McGregor career timeline
McGregor’s professional career began on March 8, 2008, at the COT 2: Cage of Truth event. He picked up a second-round TKO victory over Gary Morris. McGregor continued on winning 11 of his next 13 fights en route to a UFC nod in 2013.
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On April 6, McGregor began his UFC career with a first-round KO/TKO of Marcus Brimage. Just one minute into the fight, the Irishman brought Brimage down to the canvas with a devastating flurry of punches before putting the finishing touches on his first entry into a UFC cage.
At UFC 189, McGregor earned his first title fight through an interim featherweight championship bout against Chad Mendes. With 10 seconds to go in the second round, The Notorious unleashed a powerful 1-2 punch that took Mendes down, and it didn’t take much longer for referee Herb Dean to wave his arms and signal that McGregor was the new interim featherweight champion.
On December 12, 2015, just five months after McGregor won the interim featherweight belt, McGregor had one of his career highlights. At the MGM Arena, the Irishman treated fans to a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo to become the undisputed champion of the featherweights. McGregor was now officially a UFC staple and earned a target on his back due to his rowdy personality and fans that made their presence known at his press conferences.
McGregor’s career, which had an incredibly high peak after the Aldo win, was short-lived, looking back. After his 2015 featherweight championship win, McGregor went on to win just three of his next seven fights. On March 5, 2016, his first fight since the 13-second knockout, McGregor was submitted in the second round by Nate Diaz at UFC 196.
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While the Irishman did win the rematch against Diaz that August, McGregor’s most famous loss would come two years later. In the lightweight title fight in 2018, McGregor faced off against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. Nurmagomedov, who came into that fight on a 26-bout win streak and had yet to lose, navigated through McGregor’s pre-fight shenanigans and boisterous manner to a stunning fourth-round submission. After the fight, Nurmagomedov and McGregor’s camp got into a heated exchange cage-side, and a brawl outside the cage that only grew McGregor’s legacy.
McGregor took a year and change off after the Nurmagomedov loss to regroup, which he did through a first-round KO/TKO on Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone on January 18, 2020. The Irishman’s last two UFC fights came against Dustin Poirier. Nearly ten years after their first UFC bout, which McGregor took thanks to a first-round KO/TKO, Poirier got the best of The Notorious. During his final fight against Poirier on July 10, 2021, McGregor suffered a gruesome leg injury that forced a doctor’s stoppage in the first round.
McGregor and his fans had to wait five years for his next UFC fight when he takes on Max Holloway at UFC 329 on Saturday.
