Conor McGregor

Conor Anthony McGregor (born 14 July 1988) is an Irish mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight and lightweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is the current UFC Featherweight Champion and the former Cage Warriors featherweight and lightweight champion. As of 14 December 2015, he is No. 3 in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings and ranked as the No. 1 featherweight and No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter in the world by Sherdog. He is currently on a 15-fight win streak, 14 of which have not made it past the second round.

Early life

McGregor was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was raised in the South Dublin suburb of Crumlin and attended a Gaelscoil and Gaelcholáiste at both primary and at secondary level in Coláiste de hÍde in Tallaght where he also developed his passion for sport playing association football. In his youth, he played football for Lourdes Celtic Football Club and supported Manchester United in the English Premier League.

In 2006, McGregor moved with his family to Lucan in west Dublin, attending Gaelcholáiste Coláiste Cois Life. Following that, he commenced a plumbing apprenticeship. While in Lucan, he began sparring with future Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Tom Egan who taught McGregor how to grapple and ignited his passion for mixed martial arts. McGregor's walking weight is around 170 lbs.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial arts promotion company. It is the largest in the world and features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. Based in the United States, the UFC produces events worldwide that showcase ten weight divisions and abide by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 300 events to date. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions were to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

Eddie Alvarez

Edward "Eddie" Alvarez is an American mixed martial artist that currently competes in the UFC. Alvarez is the two-time and former Bellator Lightweight Champion. He has also competed for the Japanese DREAM promotion, where he made his name in their inaugural Lightweight Grand Prix and also fought once for ProElite's EliteXC promotion. Alvarez is currently ranked the #1 lightweight in official UFC rankings, and the #5 lightweight in the world by Sherdog.

Background

Of Puerto Rican and Irish descent, Alvarez was born and raised in Kensington, Philadelphia, a rough neighborhood with a reputation for violent crimes and an abundance of street narcotics. Alvarez competed in wrestling at Northeast Catholic High School where he was a two-time National Prep All-American, and placed sixth in both 2000 and 2001 at the National Prep School Wrestling Championships in the 145 lb weight class. After high school, Alvarez immediately pursued a professional career in MMA with his first fight coming after only eight months of formal training.

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden (sometimes called MSG or The Garden) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden", the first two (1879 and 1890) of which were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden further uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. The Garden is used for professional basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald Square. It is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and residency to singer-songwriter Billy Joel.

Martial arts

Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons: as self-defense, military and law enforcement applications; as competition, physical fitness, mental and spiritual development; as well as entertainment and the preservation of a nation's Intangible cultural heritage.

Although the term martial art has become associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia, it originally referred to the combat systems of Europe as early as the 1550s. The term is derived from Latin, and means "arts of Mars", the Roman god of war. Some authors have argued that fighting arts or fighting systems would be more appropriate on the basis that many martial arts were never "martial" in the sense of being used or created by professional warriors.

Variation and scope

Martial arts may be categorized along a variety of criteria, including: