“Conor McGregor has his sights firmly set on surpassing Matt Brown and Derrick Lewis to become the fighter with the highest number of knockouts in UFC history.”
The Irishman will take on Michael Chandler in his first return to the Octagon since suffering a serious leg injury in July 2021.
Welterweight veteran Brown, 42, tied with Lewis for the UFC’s all-time record on Saturday at UFC Charlotte when he scored a beautiful first-round knockout win over Court McGee.
The former dual-weight UFC champion, who holds eight career knockouts at age 34, took to his Twitter account to react.
McGregor tweeted: ‘Matt Brown, at 42 years of age, now holds the joint highest KO’s inside the UFC with 13KO’s.
Conor McGregor has set his sights on the record for the most knockouts in UFC history
Welterweight Matt Brown, 42, tied with Lewis for the UFC’s all-time record on Saturday
The former dual-weight UFC champion, 34, took to his Twitter account to react to the result
‘Him and “The Beast” Lewis are tied. I hold 8 KO’s inside the UFC currently, at 34 years of age. I’m getting this record.’
McGregor had seven of his eight knockouts during his first four years in UFC between 2013 and 2016.
Since then, his only other KO came in 2020 in his fight against Donald Cerrone.
Brown had a simple reply to McGregor’s statement tweeting ‘I’ll fight you for it’, before adding ‘Happy Mother’s Day Conor’.
Brown also challenged Lewis to a winner-takes-all battle for the knockout record.
He said: ‘Me vs Derrick Lewis for the record. I’m in. Don’t know how the hell I get it done but I’m willing to give it a go!’
There were huge doubts over whether McGregor would ever return to the sport again but he will now make a comeback later this year against Chandler.
Before their bout, the pair will be the coaches for season 32 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, a knockout team tournament for young fighters which will run from May 30 to August 15.
Veteran Brown had a simple reply to the Irishman’s statement tweeting ‘I’ll fight you for it’
Brown also challenged Derrick Lewis to a winner-takes-all battle for the knockout record
And Dana White announced how McGregor would be returning to the 155lb division when speaking on The Pat McAfee show – a weight category where he became the first dual-weight champion in the sport’s history in 2016 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez.
This comes despite McGregor hinting he would return to action at the heavier welterweight gold level.
He had insisted that he was desperate to be the first three-weight champion in the sport and has been bulking up during his time out through injury.
However, the muscle McGregor has put on – that has seen him reportedly reach nearly 200lbs – means he will now have to lose a notable amount of weight before fighting Chandler – almost 50lbs.
