Conor McGregor BRUTALLY drops sparring partner before his Ultimate Fighter team loses seventh fight in a row
CONOR MCGREGOR seemingly took out his Ultimate Fighter frustrations on one of his sparring partners – who he dropped with a brutal body kick.
The Notorious’ troops of bantamweight and lightweight prospects went 0-6 against Michael Chandler‘s UFC veterans before Tuesday night’s episode was aired.
Team McGregor’s hopes of getting off the mark rested on the shoulders of Landon Quonines – who ended up having a hard sparring session with Mystic Mac days before his fight.
And he tasted the brunt of McGregor’s power during sparring at the UFC Performance Institute.
After being caught with multiple body shots, Quinones had his liver rattled by a thudding kick.
His body immediately shut down and he turtled up as McGregor went to land some follow-up strikes, which he refrained from showing.
McGregor said of the spar: “Landon Quinones is a gritty fighter who is as tough as nails, always willing to learn and improve all facets of his fight game.”
While many would look back with disappointment after being dropped, Quinones draws positives with the bruising encounter with the UFC’s poster boy.
He said: “I finally got to go Conor and when I went with Conor, man, it was a blessing. I was kind of nervous.
“I start moving with him and I start throwing my jab and he throws a couple of power shots at me.
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“And I was like, ‘Okay, like it’s one of those sort of spars.
“The same way he taught us in the class, he did a lead leg body kick with his toes.
“And [then hit me with a left body kick in the liver and kid of shut me down for a minute.”
He added: “When that happened, I feel like I learned more in that round than a lot of rounds in my career and I feel like I’m gonna take that with me and it’s gonna make me so much better.
“And the way I’m gonna train is completely different.”
Quinones locked horns with UFC veteran Jason Knight in a bid to get Team McGregor up and running.
The Titan FC regular was confident of having his hand raised but was submitted in the first MINUTE of the contest.
Team McGregor are now 0-7 in the competition and are facing becoming the first team in TUF history to lose all of their quarter-final matches.
McGregor and Chandler, 34 and 36 respectively, were set to throw down not long after the finale of the show.
December 16 was the working date for the showdown, although McGregor recently missed the deadline to re-enter the USADA testing pool to ensure a return by year’s end.
The UFC do, however, have the power to issue an exemption to the six-month testing pool requirement for the Dubliner.
When asked about that possibility earlier this month, Dana White said: “We’ll see how that plays out.
“I don’t talk about s**t until s**t happens, you know what I mean?
“To sit here and think hypothetically how a million different things could happen, no idea.
“I’m focusing on what’s happening this Saturday [UFC 290], and then next Saturday.
“UFC 300 isn’t even on my mind right now.
“The Conor thing, who the hell knows how that’s gonna play out?
“Who cares what USADA says? We’ll see what happens when it happens.”