Conor McGregor was warned he wouldn’t fight again after first MMA bout

Conor McGregor was barely a week into his mixed martial arts career when he was warned it could soon be over.

The Irishman, who had started his fighting career as an amateur boxer, made his MMA debut at the age of 20 in 2007 when he took on Ciaran Campbell.

Even at that early stage there was a hint of what would come much later as McGregor entered the ring in front of a raucous crowd at the Ringside Boxing Club in Dublin.

He even appeared to be wearing a pair of swimming shorts such was the haste with which the bout was put together.

The Dubliner also offered a glimpse of his striking power as the referee stepped in to stop the fight after just 91 seconds.

But no sooner had McGregor celebrated his fight with typical exuberance than his coach John Kavanagh stepped in.

"I'd literally only been training a week in MMA, I didn't even have a pair of shorts," McGregor explained in his Notorious documentary.

"I caught him with some heavy shots and there I was dancing, thinking, 'F*** this, this is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my time'.

"And when I went back to the gym the next day, John pulled me into a room and brought me upstairs. There was a little office there and he says, 'You won't be fighting again if you ever go on like that. The guy's hurt and you're running around screaming and bouncing around – we don't go on like that'.

"I took it on board for one fight!"

McGregor reflected on his win over Campbell last year, tweeting: "McGregor vs Campbell. It was only right that my debut mixed martial arts fight was against a Campbell.

"The McGregors have been fighting the Campbells since the Highlands. Sworn enemies at a time. Nothing at this time. It showed me then that the path I was on, was correct."

But even McGregor might have struggled to predict his path would lead to such fame and fortune.

He turned professional the following year and made a winning debut against Gary Morris in the Cage of Truth promotion.

He went on to become a two-weight Cage Warriors champion before moving to the UFC where he repeated the feat, knocking out featherweight champion Jose Aldo inside 13 seconds before stopping lightweight ruler Eddie Alvarez in the second round of their 2016 fight.

McGregor also stepped into world of boxing when he took ring legend Floyd Mayweather 10 rounds before being stopped.

But his return to the cage has not been smooth having won just one of this last three fights – his 40-second KO of Donald Cerrone is sandwiched between defeats by Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.

Victory over the latter tonight, however, will catapult McGregor back into a lightweight title shot – and will no doubt prompt another inappropriate celebration.

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