Two-time Olympian Philip Sutcliffe Sr: Conor McGregor showed ‘supreme class’ in exhibition boxing match

Bloodyelbow.com

Conor McGregor returned to the boxing ring last week when he fought amateur boxer Michael McGrane in an exhibition match at Crumlin Boxing Club in Dublin, Ireland.

Both men put on a great show and fought to a draw, but McGrane claims ‘The Notorious’ threw a cheap shot at the opening bell which, for him, kind of ruined the contest.

“We touch gloves at the start of the fight and you’re meant to go back to your corner, but Conor never went back to his corner,” McGrane told TMZ Sports. “Conor leaped at me with a left hook, the clinical left hooks, and he caught me flush in the eye with his clinical left hook.”

“Yeah, it was a cheap shot. It was the cheapest shot I’ve ever caught in my life. Conor McGregor hit me with a cheap shot in his hometown.”

Irish boxing legend and two-time Olympian Philip Sutcliffe Sr., however, says McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, fought with nothing but class against McGrane.

“He knows how famous [the Good Friday events] are, they’re famous all over the world,” Sutcliffe said on a recent edition of MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast. We’ve had people from all over the world box on our Good Friday shows, some of the biggest names in Irish boxing have boxed on these shows. Conor said he’d love to box on the Good Friday show. He boxed on the Good Friday show in 2004 and he said he’d like to go again. I said, ‘No problem, but we have to get a proper match for you,’ you know, someone that’s around his own weight and someone around his own class.

“He showed supreme class in sparring Micheal McGrane, who was an Irish champion. It was a great spar, the two of them went hell for leather at each other. Conor decked him with a body shot in the third round, which was fantastic. Micheal got back up and he went at Conor straight away. He’s a warrior, he went back at Conor and he caught him with some beautiful shots. Conor danced away from him, but it was a very good exhibition of boxing.”

McGregor recently completed a suspension for his UFC 229 post-fight brawl with Khabib Nurmagomedov, and the 30-year-old is reportedly in talks with UFC president Dana White over his next fight. McGregor last fought in a professional capacity at UFC 229, where he was submitted by Nurmagomedov in the main event.