The Man Who Fought McGregor – Michael McGrane discusses Notorious bout

Micheal McGrane revealed a precise and powerful Conor McGregor dropped him with a body shot on their by now infamous Good Friday clash, but was never going to stop him from completing the exhibition bout.

After sparring the two-time underage Irish champion along with teen sensation Willo Hayden on a visit ‘home’ last Wednesday, ‘The Notorious’ expressed an interest in fighting on Crumlin BC’s famous Good Friday show.

McGregor fought on the club show throughout his teens and a bout with McGrane was organised, the final fight of the 27th edition of the annual card.

The match-up was kept secret, with McGregor being listed as ‘AN Other (Crumlin)’ on the running order and the appearance would cause a big stir.

Brief footage of the clash as well as pictures and news reports have been since published around the world, but speaking to mmafighting.com‘s Eurobash podcast both McGrane and Phil Sutcliffe Snr revealed an incident during the fight the footage released so far hasn’t shown.

McGregor managed to drop the Elite amateur with a perfectly timed body shot.

“In the second or third round he caught me with a solar plex punch and he took every last gasp of wind out of me,” McGrane said before revealing he was never going to stay down.

“I didn’t think I was going to come back from it to be honest, but when you take a look out at the crowd and the corner you have to get your breath back, you have to fight on through.”

“I got my wind back before the count and I was ready to rock again,” added ‘Hurricane’ McGrane

“The two of them went at it and Conor decked him with a body shot in the third round and he went back at Conor straight away and landed some good shots. It was a very good exhibition of boxing,” legendary Crumlin boss and double Olympian Sutcliffe said of the clash. 

The clash was eventually scored a draw, which is in keeping with exhibition tradition, but McGrane revealed neither fighter went into the ring in playful mood. 

It seems both came to fight and the Crumlin amateur wasn’t going to be overawed by the two weight UFC champions stature or fame.  

“McGregor might be an animal, but I am an animal too!”

“It is some experience, but it doesn’t matter who he is or how much money he has when he is standing there in front of me I am trying to do the exact same thing as him. It doesn’t matter who is in front of you in that ring – he has two arms and two legs so do I,” he adds before admitting to nerves.

“Don’t get me wrong my nerves were gone. I had my Ma, my Granda and every single one of my mates there.”

Reflecting on McGregor as an opponent the Crumlin native praised the former Crumlin BC amateurs precision and power and revealed he was a showman to the last.

“He is a 10 out of 10 showman. As a fighter, his power is 10 out of 10. He lands his digs with accuracy and precision. You can see in most of his UFC fights he stops people with his precision, but he didn’t stop me.”

“I think he knew he was in for a fight after I sparred him on the Wednesday.”

The fight has ensured massive publicity for Crumlin and for McGrane and it seems the exposure has come at the perfect time as he revealed he is soon to start a pro journey of his own.

“It was a life time experience and it couldn’t have happened at a better time because I am about to go professional myself. I have a fight coming up in Denmark next  month and I am thinking, after that fight, I might go professional straight away.”

Listen to this week’s edition of Eurobash in full below: