Ranking Conor McGregor's 10 UFC Performances

The story of this fight is incredible in hindsight.

Stashed away on the prelims of a Fight Night card in Boston, McGregor was initially slated to face Andy Ogle, who pulled from the bout with an injury. Max Holloway stepped up and after a 3-2 start to his UFC career, no-one had any idea what was to come his way.

The then 21 year old Holloway just couldn't get to grips with McGregor's game early. The Holloway of today, who creates angles and switches stances more effectively than almost anyone in MMA, was still learning his craft at the top level. This was part of the learning experience. After dazzling Holloway with his dynamic kickboxing attack in the first half of the bout, his game plan changed noticeably as he started taking down Holloway at will and dominating on the ground. Later, we found out McGregor tore his ACL in the second round, which is why he changed course mid-fight. When you consider how highly rated Holloway's takedown defence is in 2017, it makes this performance all the more impressive in retrospect, and provides a rare look into McGregor's underrated and rarely witnessed wrestling game.

Despite Holloway being green at the time - and McGregor picking up the injury mid-fight - there's something to be said that Max is one of only two men to take McGregor to the judges.

Both men have enjoyed huge success since this night, and if there's ever a rematch, there will never be a bigger disparity between the attention a first fight got, and the subsequent rematch would get.