UFC 246 free fight: Conor McGregor earns champ-champ status after brutalizing Eddie Alavarez

Conor McGregor will forever be known as the first fighter in UFC history to hold two weight-class championships simultaneously.

At UFC 205, McGregor took on then-UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Under the bright lights of New York’s Madison Square Garden, in the company’s first event in the big city after New York state dropped its longstanding MMA ban, McGregor put on a striking clinic.

Competing at 155 pounds for the first time under the UFC’s banner, McGregor, who was at the time the reigning UFC featherweight champ,  knocked down Alvarez six times. Midway through the second, McGregor landed a lightning-fast four-punch combination.

When Alvarez hit the ground, McGregor pounced on the downed champion and finished the fight with punches at 3:04 of Round 2.

The image of McGregor atop the cage at MSG, flaunting his two titles to the delight of the crowd, is an image that will likely live on forever. Equally as legendary was his infamous phrase on the microphone post-fight.

“Surprise, surprise, the king is back,” McGregor yelled into the microphone. The phrase was a play on Nate Diaz’s signature “I’m not surprised mother (expletive)” line from UFC 196.

McGregor returns to action for the first time since October 2018 when he takes on Donald Cerrone in the UFC 246 headliner. The event takes place Saturday, Jan. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It will stream live on pay-per-view after prelims air on ESPN.

Relive Conor McGregor’s calculated belt-clinching beatdown of Eddie Alvarez from UFC 205 in the video above.