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Conor McGregor Earns His Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blackbelt Before Khabib Even Gets A Stripe On His Whitebelt

Congratulations to "The Notorious" Conor McGregor, who earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt under Coach John Kavanagh last night at SBG Ireland - checking off one of the final items on McGregor's career bucket list....

Conor McGregor has been on the journey to receiving his blackbelt for twenty years now, and was just one promotion away as a brownbelt for the past ten! 

Despite him being the shining star of Kavanagh, SBG, and Ireland in general - he was never given a shortcut to the final destination and had to put in the work for the majority of his lifetime to earn this. What a monumental achievement. Some fighters, such as, say, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, aren't even past the whitebelt stage of their jiu jitsu careers! It's a very difficult process!

Conor's coach, John Kavanagh, was the first person in Ireland to ever receive a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt, and to see a student like Conor get this emotional to receive his - despite achieving the top of the mountain everywhere else in combat sports - must mean the world to him. I hope this either signals that Conor has been putting in the work at the gym and getting motivated again, or that Kavanagh is kickstarting that process now.

People like to clown McGregor for tapping out a few measly times in his career, but the actual jiu-jitsu greats like Gordon Ryan appreciate the skills he's actually packing....

Never forget when McGregor swept Diaz from x-guard in their first fight….

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We'll never let that one go as McGregor fans. 

Hell, even he guillotine'd the guillotine king Dustin Poirier!

Jeff Bottari. Getty Images.

No idea how that fight ended, I forget.

Come time to whoop Michael Chandler's ass next year, he may go in there, double leg Chandler, and choke him out with a rear naked choke. Just for shits and gigs. If Chandler started getting mouthy, though, he's gettin twister'd or gogoplata'd.

You just watch.