Conor McGregor celebrated an important anniversary this week – one that went unnoticed by his biggest fans.

He couldn’t possibly have imagined how important a checked leg kick would be on October 9, 2010.

McGregor was the double-champ at Cage Warriors before he signed with the UFCCage Warriors

Rare footage has emerged of McGregor winning his fourth professional MMA bout as this week marked 14 years since the victory.

‘The Notorious’ was at the very beginning of his professional career, competing under the Chaos FC banner, when he faced Connor Dillon.

It was only his fifth professional MMA fight, having made his debut two years prior in Irish regional fighting.

McGregor had won three of his four pro MMA bouts going into the Dillon fight, having lost out to Lithuanian Artemij Sitenkov in June 2008.

The defeat to Sitenkov was only one of two ‘The Notorious’ would experience in the following eight years until he was submitted by Nate Diaz at UFC 196.

A 22-year-old McGregor would hardly have known the significance of these wins in the early stages of his career.

After all, ‘The Notorious’ came from a working-class family in Dublin and was just coming off of a plumber’s apprenticeship when he entered his pro career.

It would only be five years later that he would go on to become the first Irish-born UFC champion and the most recognisable figure the sport has ever produced.

The thought of making $30,000,000 from fighting Floyd Mayweather seven years on from the bout would have been deep in the back of McGregor’s mind, if in it at all.

Dillon, a Northern Irish fighter, was also in the early stages of his career, fighting his fourth professional MMA bout.

McGregor was the first UFC fighter to hold two of their belts simultaneouslyGetty

He would go on to retire in September 2015, three months before McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to become the UFC’s featherweight champion.

The young Irishman looks a shadow of himself in the 2010 footage: tattooless, with short hair and fighting MMA in a boxing-style ring.

The bout had entered the final minute of the first round as McGregor avoided a lethal uppercut from Dillon and proceeded to press his opponent to the corner in typical southpaw fashion.

With Dillon backed up, he snaps a right leg kick in the direction of McGregor, who at the same time uses his quick reflexes to block the attempt with his knee.

This catches Dillon on the inside of his right leg and as he puts pressure on it to continue fighting, the pain gets the better of him and he instantly starts limping.

And three steps later, McGregor pops him with an infamous left hand but his opponent had already given up as his corner threw in the towel and the fight was stopped.

The Notorious would lose his next fight to Joe Duffy as part of the Cage Warriors promotion, before embarking on a 15-fight win streak that culminated with his Aldo KO.

McGregor cornered his opponent at the end of round one@MMAHistoryToday

His opponent tried to back him off with a leg kick@MMAHistoryToday

But it was defended and sent Dillon stumbling into the ropes@MMAHistoryToday

McGregor pursued his injured opponent@MMAHistoryToday

Before the opposition’s corner threw in the towel@MMAHistoryToday

UFC President Dana White made the trip to Dublin in 2013 after he had been inundated with requests to sign ‘The Notorious’.

On an eight-fight win streak at this stage, McGregor had already won both the featherweight and lightweight championships at Cage Warriors.

This made him the first professional European in MMA to hold titles in two divisions simultaneously.

Luckily for McGregor and more so White, the UFC boss decided to sign the Irishman on that trip and the rest is history.

Having lost his last two bouts in the UFC to Dustin Poirier in 2021, McGregor was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler at UFC 303 this year.

But the fight was cancelled due to McGregor suffering from a broken toe in training.

Now, with ‘the Notorious’ having been spotted thoroughly enjoying himself in the public eye, and rightly so, there is a doubt over whether we will see him in the octagon ever again.