Conor McGregor ‘f***** up’ Thor Bjornsson in famous sparring footage despite staggering 300lbs weight difference
Conor McGregor's sparring ahead of his upcoming clash with Michael Chandler is far more sensible than it was nine years ago.
By the time he steps back into the cage on June 29, it will have been three years since his last fight - a doctor's stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier due to a broken leg.
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But he doesn't look like a man coming off a lengthy lay-off, judging by his recent sparring footage.
A four-minute video uploaded to his social media channels last week shows McGregor forcing one sparring partner to quit after sticking it on him.
Meanwhile, another clip from a different sparring session sees McGregor snap back another training partner's head multiple times with crisp straight shots.
Both of these men appear to be a similar size to McGregor but that hasn't always been the case for the former two-weight UFC champion when selecting sparring partners.
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In 2015, McGregor went viral for sharing a round with 450lbs behemoth Thor Bjornsson.
The Icelandic giant, who played 'The Mountain' in Game of Thrones, had ten inches in height and around 300lbs in weight on McGregor.
But despite the staggering size discrepancy between the pair, UFC commentator Joe Rogan insists McGregor 'f***** up' the 2018 World's Strongest Man winner.
"I don't think he knows how to fight," said Rogan in 2019. "There was a video of him sparring Conor McGregor and Conor McGregor is f****** him up.
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"Conor isn't weighing in so he is probably 170lbs and the Game of Thrones guy is 300lbs easy. I would imagine he is in the 320lbs, 340lbs range.
"He's chasing Conor and Conor is cracking him in the stomach. It's kind of a crazy video...
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"The guy is trying to grab him but he doesn't know what he is doing... he just doesn't know what to do but if he learned what to do Conor would never do that.
"Like Francis Ngannou who is probably one of the biggest heavyweights in the UFC, Conor would never do that with him, he can't.
"He's a giant striker, he would f*** him up. But with that guy, he didn't know what he was doing."
A couple of years later, Thor took Rogan's advice and started training in boxing.
He had two non-scoring bouts against experienced professional pugilists Steven Ward and Simon Vallily before moving on to a pair of competitive fights with arm wrestler Devon Larratt and fellow strongman competitor Eddie Hall.
His fight with the latter in 2022, billed 'The Heaviest Boxing Match in the World', was a massive spectacle and was watched by over 30 million people on YouTube.
Hall decked Thor with a massive overhand right in the second round but the 6ft9in puncher came back to score two knockdowns of his own en route to a unanimous decision victory.
These days Thor is focusing more on his weightlifting than his boxing while Hall recently won his MMA debut via knockout in a 2vs1 handicap match.
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