Conan O’Brien Nearly Gets His Head Kicked Off By Conor McGregor [Video]


Conor McGregor will be fighting in the main event at UFC 196 on March 5, and just days before the touted event, the UFC fighter took some time to visit with Conan O’Brien in Los Angeles. McGregor visited Conan on Thursday night, reports Fox Sports. While he was there, the ginger-bearded Irish fighter demonstrated one of his favorite moves on host Conan O’Brien.

Conan Conor
[Photo by @JOE_co_uk/Twitter]

The demo came during a discussion between O’Brien and McGregor about the fighter’s uncanny, “eerie” ability to predict how his fights are going to go down. During the conversation, Conor McGregor was asked to give some insight into how he thinks Saturday’s bout with Nate Diaz is going to play out.

“I like the left uppercut, although he has the height and the range, I still like that rear uppercut. I also like the Meia Lua, which is a half-moon, it’s a Capoeira technique where you spin and put your hand on the mat and swing your heel around like a baseball bat. It’s a technique I have become very good at and I’m getting better at it. So I think I might break it out and ping it across his head.”

McGregor’s detailed description of his favorite kick wasn’t enough for Conan O’Brien, though. Conan asked the UFC fighter how to properly execute the elaborate kick, and McGregor used the opportunity to demonstrate the move with Conan O’Brien as his “sparring” partner. In front of a captivated, live audience, of course.

Here’s how it went down.

Conan O’Brien talked a big game leading up to the demonstration, but facial expressions don’t lie. While it’s hard to see in the initial, blink-of-an-eye kick, the slow-mo replay clearly illustrates the very real fear O’Brien clearly felt as McGregor’s foot came within inches of the late-night TV show host’s moneymaker face.

As Fox Sports put it, Conan O’Brien’s life “passed before his eyes” in the split second that McGregor’s foot came closest to his face. You can almost see Conan’s iconic ginger hair blowing in the breeze of McGregor’s Meia Lua kick.

While there’s some speculation that McGregor may shy away from the kick in his fight against Diaz now that he’s so publicly demonstrated it on a traumatized Conan O’Brien, that may not be the case. After all, the UFC fighter has a reputation for telling his opponents exactly how he’s going to beat them, then following through.

MMA Conan
[Photo by @theScoreMMA/Twitter]

As discussed during his Conan O’Brien interview, going into UFC 196, McGregor boasts a record of 19 wins, two losses, and no draws. The 27-year-old Irish mixed martial artist has taken the UFC by storm in the two years since he hit the UFC scene, reports UFC.com. Well before making Conan O’Brien reconsider his life choices, he was raising eyebrows in the UFC world. Early in his career, he had some strong words for fans.

“We’re not here to take part. We’re here to take over.”

He’s very nearly done that and was initially scheduled to be a lightweight title fight at UFC 196. Unfortunately for McGregor, his original opponent, Rafael dos Anjos, suffered a broken foot, so the bout has been rescheduled as a non-title fight against welterweight Nate Diaz. ESPN reports that Diaz agreed to the fight with a mere 10 days notice. As McGregor told Conan O’Brien, he’s not going to pull any punches (or kicks) just because this headlining fight is for bragging rights rather than a title.

UFC 196 is scheduled to go down on Saturday, March 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. ESPN predicts that McGregor is going to win the main event by TKO in the second round, citing Diaz’s short notice and the fact that he’s facing off one of the best in the business. Just ask Conan. During the co-main event, Miesha Tate will be challenging Holly Holm for her women’s bantamweight title. Rumor has it, Tate is ready to fight dirty.

What do you think? Did Conor McGregor give Conan a preview of Nate Diaz’s takedown? And was the look on Conan O’Brien’s face in the wake of that speeding foot priceless?

[Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images]

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